Woman Gives Birth after Car Crash
A South Florida woman gave birth to one of her twins inside her car after getting into an accident while driving her to the hospital on Friday morning.
Police report that at approximately 6:00a.m. Jessica Stanley went into labor. Stanley was driving herself to the hospital to give birth to twins, when she got into a car accident near Southwest 152nd Street and 102nd Avenue in Southwest Miami-Dade.
By the time emergency crews arrived at the scene, Stanley had already given birth to one of the twins, aided a Good Samaritan, Betty Hornes.
Sixty-three-year-old Hornes is a gastrointestinal technician at Baptist Hospital in Miami. She was on her way to work when she witnessed the crash. Hornes went to lend aid when she discovered the woman was laying back, legs open and the baby’s arrival was imminent.
Hornes said she knew what she had to do. “She was in the passenger side, in the front, and I took the baby. I went underneath his head and slowly pulled him out. Slowly and gently.”
Hornes held the baby until emergency crews arrived. She instructed the mother to take slow breaths and try not to push. Soon after this, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived at the scene and took Stanley and her baby to Jackson South Community Hospital where the second infant was born.
Although this was her first delivery, Hornes also noted she is one of 10 children and has seen some of her siblings being born.
Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. Mother and babies are doing fine thanks to the quick thinking of Betty Homes. Betty Homes acted in good faith and is protected by Florida Statute 768.13, the Good Samaritan Act, which gives her immunity from civil liability should anything have gone wrong. It states that:
“Any person, including those licensed to practice medicine, who gratuitously and in good faith renders emergency care or treatment either in direct response to emergency situations related to and arising out of a public health emergency declared pursuant to s. 381.00315, a state of emergency which has been declared pursuant to s. 252.36 or at the scene of an emergency outside of a hospital, doctor’s office, or other place having proper medical equipment, without objection of the injured victim or victims thereof, shall not be held liable for any civil damages as a result of such care or treatment or as a result of any act or failure to act in providing or arranging further medical treatment where the person acts as an ordinary reasonably prudent person would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.
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