By CrossRiverWatch admin
A mentally deranged lady, possibly in her thirties, yesterday, Thursday June 9, 2016 delivered a female child on (Ndidem Usang Iso) Marian road, Calabar’s most highbrow street at about 3:50pm.
Eyewitnesses and shop owners around who saw the incident told CrossRiverWatch that the lady has been a familiar face in the neighbourhood before she became pregnant.
When a CrossRiverWatch reporter visited the scene of the delivery after the mother and baby had been moved to the hospital, one shop owner told our reporter that: “We did not see her again for some time after she became pregnant. I think she was raped.
“She returned some days ago and sat in that place and has been feeling very uncomfortable since yesterday. Nobody knew it was labor that was disturbing her. It was when the baby started coming out that people called the health workers who came here to assist her.”
The Cross River State Ministry of Health was quick to respond to an emergency call put through to their office.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong, responded immediately by going to the scene personally with an ambulance to handle the situation. On arrival, she took the mother and the baby to the General Hospital, Calabar for expert medical attention.
The Commissioner also promised that after their discharge from the hospital, the mother and child will be referred to a psychiatric hospital.
There was a mild drama before the team left for the general hospital as the mentally ill lady refused to go to the hospital until another friend of hers who is also mentally ill came to intervene and beg her before she changed her mind.