An obstetrician in Puerto Rico will always remember Sunday night when she delivered a ‘miracle’ baby at a hurricane-hit clinic without electricity.
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Residents of the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, were ordered to shelter in their homes last Sunday when Hurricane Fiona hit the municipality. But the evening did not go as planned for Dr. Zaskia Rodriguez, who received a call from a patient about to give birth.
For the obstetrician, it was impossible to leave the patient to herself in such a situation. So she drove to the nearest clinic, driving through torrential rains and 136 km/h winds in the hope of arriving in time for the delivery.
Dr. Rodriguez called the experience particularly “disturbing,” since power was interrupted during labor, leaving only one generator to power the clinic. The delivery finally lasted five hours and a baby girl “in perfect health” was born, like a “miracle”.
“It was really an incredible feeling,” the obstetrician told the “New York Post.”
However, she suspected that the work was not finished for the mother, who was going to have to take care of a newborn in terrible conditions. Their house had no running water or electricity, due to weather conditions.
“The first days were difficult for our patients, because the basic needs of their home were not accessible,” said the doctor.
A few days later, she estimates that about half of her patients still have no electricity. She worries above all for the children she helped bring into the world, and who will begin their lives in a very particular way.
Since then, she has continued to give birth to miracle babies, despite the temperature outside.
“I am exhausted, but we [les Portoricains] we have recovered from worse things in the past,” she said.