Saturday night in Boynton Beach, Florida, doctors and nurses left a mother in the delivery room alone, while in labor, leaving the father to deliver his own baby. The father of now three, who is not a doctor, had to hope for the best while delivering his new baby girl, who is completely healthy and doing well.
Indira Ali arrived at Bethesda Hospital East that night after feeling contractions coming on quickly. Their obstetrician, Dr. Elenda Deutsch, met them at the hospital. Deutsch felt that the labor was stalling and and Indira was given an induction drug to speed up the delivery. According to The Palm Beach Post, a patient down the hall needed a C-section and the doctor stopped the induction so she could go take care of the other patient and slow down Idira’s birth. Indira had also previously asked for an epidural for the intense pain, but never got one.
Husband, Zaheer, explained that the baby was ready, Doctor or not, and said, “My wife was screaming. The nurse says, ‘You have to wait.’” The nurse then left the room to go two doors down to call the doctor, but by the time she returned, the baby had already been born. Their daughter, Aaliyah, was coming right then and they couldn’t stop it. She was born 6lbs 3oz, with only her parents in the room.
The doctor, Elana Deutsch, said, “It must have happened very rapidly, because I was only in the C-section for 30 minutes.” She then went on to explain that a nurse should have stayed in the room, but since she was new, it was likely that she was nervous to be alone. “By the time she [the nurse] was back in the room, the baby was in the bed.”
Deutsch returned in the room only to be found that it was time to cut the umbilical cord. “The patient was obviously very upset. I was very upset,” she explained.
The hospitals spokeswoman, Lisa Kronhaus, made sure to let people know that the mother and baby are doing well, but patient privacy rules prevent her from saying anymore about what had happened. The hospital has made it clear to apologize to the family and moved them to a VIP suite.
Zaheer said that they chose this hospital two weeks earlier after visiting the facility and taking a tour. The couple was impressed by the “caring atmosphere and sincerity of the staff.” After this incident, all he has to say is, “The hospital is saying, ‘Sorry,’ but I just feel it’s wrong. It’s a hospital. There are supposed to be nurses and midwives. A nurse should be there with you.”
They are now looking into what had actually happened because Kronhaus told ABC News that an investigation is taking place on what the family is saying. Apparently, a nurse was in the room at the time of the delivery, but the Ali family is still sticking to their story.