Emergency doctor called to Swisttal-Buschhoven Baby Luna born in parents’ car
Swisttal-Buschhoven · Her parents were on their way to hospital but little Luna would not wait and was born in their car at the Jet petrol station in Buschhoven on Friday.
Little Luna already has thick black hair and is healthy. But unlike most children, who are born in delivery rooms at hospitals, Luna was born in her parents’ car at a petrol station.
On Friday 13 January, Yvonne Bartz (29), a team leader at the games arcade in Euskirchen, was on maternity leave. Her baby was due in 13 days but she started having mild contractions. When they became stronger, she rang her husband Alexander, a department head at Kaufhof in Leverkusen, who drove to their home at Groß-Vernich. At about 4.15pm, Alexander Bartz set off to drive his wife to the Marienhospital in Bonn, where their first child was also born in 2014.
During the journey, his wife’s contractions got stronger and stronger. “At Buschhoven, my waters broke,” explained Yvonne Bartz a day after the birth. It was 4.30pm. Her husband turned off the B56 into the Jet petrol station, ran into the shop and asked the sales assistant to call an ambulance, telling her: “We won’t make it to hospital.”
Sales assistant Elena Foitzik (21) reacted quickly and called an ambulance, which arrived a few minutes later with emergency doctor Heike Roeben. Yvonne Bartz had already reclined her seat and raised her legs. “The five minutes before the birth were really hard,” she said on Saturday. “I pushed and pushed and then the child was there.” The emergency doctor cut the umbilical cord and wrapped the child in a thermal blanket. It was 4.41pm. “It’s the first time I’ve attended a birth like this,” said the experienced doctor a day later. It is also a first for Sebastian Geintzer, who has been working as an ambulance man since 2008.
After the birth, mother and child were cared for in the ambulance. There were no complications. As all this was going on, business at the petrol station continued as normal. Then the young father came into the shop to announce the birth before the ambulance took mother and child to the Malteser hospital in Hardtberg.
On Saturday, the parents thanked the petrol station employees, the emergency doctor, the ambulance crew and the team at the hospital for their help in the unusual situation. Now they are looking forward to some quiet days at home with Luna and Alessandro; there was quite enough excitement last Friday.
(Original text: Hans-Peter Fuß. Translated by Kate Carey)
