An obstetrician in Kentucky made headlines after delivering a patient’s baby safely then giving birth to her own right after.
Leah Halliday Johnson was about to give birth to her fourth child at Women’s Care of the Blue Grass on Sunday, just as Dr. Amanda Hess was preparing for her second, NBC News reports. According to Halliday Johnson, Hess had examined her while she was in the hospital, but was not exclusively her doctor.
Halliday Johnson said, “I saw her three or four times, and I liked her a lot. She wasn’t supposed to be on call since she was having a baby herself.”
Hess was being induced into labor at Frankfort Regional Medical Center when she overheard that Halliday Johnson was about to deliver at the other hospital, according to a Facebook post from Dr. Hala Sabry.
Halliday Johnson’s baby needed immediate medical attention, and while the on-call obstetrician was on the way, Hess immediately put boots and a hospital gown on to cover herself and got to work.
Hess said,
I said you know, I’m not on call, I’m here in a gown, but I think we ought to have the baby.
Halliday Johnson said she had no idea that Hess was in labor, as the doctor remained professional the entire time. “She was definitely in doctor mode. My husband noticed something was going on because she had on a hospital gown, but I didn’t notice that because I was on the delivery table. I was in my own world there.”
A few minutes after Hess delivered Halliday Johnson’s baby, she started having contractions of her own. She said, “I had actually taken a call the day before, so I thought really that I was working up to the last minute. But this was literally ’til the last second.”
The two have no spoken since, but Halliday Johnson says she’s really grateful for Hess. “She’s definitely earned her time off. I appreciate what she did for my family, and it speaks a lot to who she is as a woman and a mother as well as a doctor. It makes you feel better, bringing a baby girl into the world, knowing there are women like her willing to step up like that.”
Hess said she was just doing her job. “Delivering other peoples’ babies is something I do every day. And I’m more comfortable with delivering someone else’s baby than my own, for sure.”
