A 22-year-old woman gave birth to a boy in an ambulance as shooting stones from a hillock disrupted traffic on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Ramban district on Saturday, health officials said.
Shaheena, a resident of Dharam-Sangaldan in Gool, delivered her first child with the help of 108 Ambulance support staff after the vehicle was caught in a traffic jam on its way to the district hospital, the officials said.
Traffic on the highway was disrupted since morning due to the stones sliding off a hillock overlooking the highway at Cafeteria, Mehar. Several vehicles suffered damage after being hit by the stones but there is no report of any casualty.
"When we reached Karol from Gool, some 35 km from Ramban, there was heavy traffic but Army personnel cleared a path for the ambulance. But it stopped again near Mehar due to the shooting stones," said a relieved Mohammad Yousuf, Shaheena's husband.
"The medical support staff managed the delivery in the ambulance," he added.
Yousuf thanked the medical staff, Army, police and civil volunteers for their support in ensuring that both Shaheena and her newborn reached the hospital in time.
"We were caught in traffic for over two hours and as the patient's condition deteriorated, we decided to go ahead with the delivery. Both the mother and the child are now admitted in the hospital and are stable," said the nursing orderly accompanying Shaheena from the sub-district hospital in Gool to Ramban.
Traffic department officials said the stones rolling off the hillock hampered traffic movement from both sides.
