Doctor Stops for Gas, Ends Up Delivering Baby at a Station

Dr. Amos Froman, a senior pediatric surgeon at Hadassah, found himself delivering a baby at a gas station in an extraordinary chain of coincidences on Thursday. He told Walla that after a family gathering in Modi'in settlement of Maccabim, he drove an older relative home and debated whether to stop for fuel while traveling on Route 443.

He entered the station just in time. Nearby, he noticed a couple returning from Modi'in and heading to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for a second birth. The woman was in advanced labor, and her husband had stopped because, he said, she told him “the head was already halfway out.” Froman quickly realized there was no time to wait for an ambulance and that they would not make it to the maternity ward. “The most important thing in such a situation is first of all to stay calm,” he said, adding that panic only makes things harder.

The gas station was turned into an improvised delivery room. Froman asked station workers for clean towels and anything else needed, and they immediately helped. “Everyone rushed to help. I saw the birth advancing very quickly. It was clear the baby was not going to wait. Within minutes he was already out,” he said.

Although Froman has spent decades treating children and babies and has taken part in many surgeries and procedures, he said he had not delivered a baby since medical school. After the birth, additional medical teams were called, and mother and newborn were examined before continuing to Hadassah Ein Kerem for planned treatment and follow-up. Froman summed up the experience as a remarkable accident, saying he was still thinking about how many coincidences had to align for everyone to end up in the same place at the same time.