Twins born in the midst of blaze
Published: November 18, 2005
Paramedic Malcolm Midgley placed two miracle babies - they were only minutes old - snugly into their makeshift cribs: two tomato boxes.
He had just saved the twins’ lives while a blaze raged metres away.
When the emergency official arrived at their mother’s shack in the Zamimpilo informal settlement near Riverlea in western Johannesburg on Thursday night, the girl was clinically dead and the boy was struggling to breathe.
Their mother, who was six months pregnant, had given birth prematurely in the dark shack.
It was touch and go for the babies.
Firefighters were about 300m away, battling a blaze that swept through the settlement. Residents were scrambling to save their belongings from the fire and from thieves.
As firefighters were finally getting the blaze under control, Midgley thought his work was done, but then residents reported that a woman was in trouble; they thought she was having a miscarriage.
Midgley, also spokesperson for the Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (JEMS), grabbed his bag filled with advanced first-aid equipment and set off to investigate.
“When I arrived at the woman’s shack I found she had already given birth to a boy and girl. She was in the dark and trying to light a candle.
“The girl was clinically dead, and I began resuscitating her.
I thought she wasn’t going to make it, but then she started screaming.
“Her brother also wasn’t faring too well. His breathing was slow, so I resuscitated him as well.”
With the twins breathing, JEMS personnel looked around for something to carry them in. They found two tomato boxes, wrapped the babies in thermal blankets and set off for hospital.
The two tots, each weighing only 1,2kg, were small enough to fit snugly in their makeshift cribs. By the time the two arrived at Coronation Hospital, their conditions had improved remarkably.
“When I left them, the little girl was screaming her head off. Both were a very healthy pink colour,” Midgley said.
For Midgley, assisting in births is just part of the territory of being a paramedic.
“I have done this for 23 years.
I have cut more umbilical cords than had hot dinners,” he laughed.
“After saving the babies, I didn’t stop smiling all the way home. It’s such a change. Often people don’t get the chance to say thank you, but these are the thank yous that make the job worthwhile,” he said.
An official at the hospital later said the twins were in a stable condition.
“They are in incubators in the nursery. For the moment the babies are doing well.”
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