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Bouncing baby boy is a SUV-ivor

by Chris Hudson
9/ 4/2008

A NINE-MONTH pregnant woman trapped in a 4x4 suffering from a broken leg and wrist after crashing into a tree, was cut free by firefighters in a dramatic rescue and rushed to Macclesfield Hospital...where she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

The terrfied mum-to-be had her legs stuck fast under the dashboard and paramedics feared she had spinal injuries after the Nissan X-Trail she was travelling in struck a tree opposite the Smithy Garage in Bosley.

Ten quick-thinking firefighters, realising her dilemma, "rammed up" the dashboard using hydraulics and cut off the roof of the car using the "Jaws of Life" – pressurised metal-cutters.

Macclesfield and Congleton crews then moved the woman, who was said to be in "a lot of pain", onto a special spinal board and into an ambulance.

An Air Ambulance helicopter landed in a field near to the Old Smithy Garage, on Smithy Lane, after the incident took place at 5pm on Friday, March 21, but was stood down when the woman’s injuries were not considered life-threatening.

The woman, thought to be from Derby, was rushed to the Maternity Unit at Macclesfield Hospital where doctors performed a successful emergency Caesarean section. Mother and son have both now been transferred to Derby City Hospital.

Macclesfield firefighter Tony Poynton, the crew manager of Red Watch, who was in charge of the rescue said: "The woman was in pain. Her legs were trapped so we rammed up the dashboard and used the hydraulic rescue equipment to cut off the roof because paramedics thought she had spinal injuries. The ambulance crew called by the fire station and told us the woman had given birth a few hours later and there was a good feeling in the station. It was very pleasing to find out that both the woman and her child were all right."

A police spokeswoman said that a female had given birth to a healthy baby and that the story had a "happy ending".

Customers at the nearby Queens Arms 500 yards away didn’t see the crash and its aftermath, and the owner of the Old Smithy Garage, Harvey Wilmot, had shut up shop an hour beforehand.

He said: "I don’t have very much experience of the giving birth experience as I don’t have any kids myself. If I had been there I think they would have had to take me to hospital as well – to calm my nerves."