Taxi driver Eslam Khalaf (43) from Barger-Compascuum often makes trips from Ter Apel, but he will never forget a trip from earlier this month. The woman he has to take to the hospital in Scheemda on December 5 appears to be about to give birth. “Three minutes later I heard the baby crying.”
Through the intermediary company fastataxi (similar to how Uber works) Khalaf is assigned a ride from the COA location in Ter Apel to the hospital in Emmen. Upon arrival he sees the heavily pregnant woman. “Once there, I was told that the lady could not go to the Emmen hospital, but that I had to take her to Scheemda. The midwife drove behind us.”
“When we were fifteen minutes into the journey, that lady started shouting, she wanted to know how long it would take before we got to the hospital.” Khalaf doesn’t really know what’s happening to him. “I didn’t know what to do, so I drove faster to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.”
It’s not fast enough. “I tried to help her, but I didn’t know how. She said the baby was coming and she couldn’t hold on any longer. Three minutes later the baby was heard crying.”
Khalaf doesn’t know what to do. The midwife drives after them, but he wants to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. “I thought: if I stop, the baby will no longer live. I was under so much stress. I said to the mother: keep holding the baby.”
In the meantime, he calls the hospital and says that help should be at the main entrance. “I think they thought I was joking when I told them a baby had been born in my taxi, so I didn’t get help right away.”
Upon arrival, he tells the midwife that the baby has already been born. “She then immediately went to get her bag and treated the mother and baby. The baby was brought in first. Then the mother was picked up.”
Kahalf is shaking on his legs. To his great relief he hears that mother and baby are healthy. “Everyone said, ‘How are you? And thank you for saving the lives of mother and child.'”
Although Khalaf himself is also relieved, it still concerns him weeks after that fateful evening. “I sleep very badly. I was so shocked, it was life-threatening. If I had known that this lady was heavily pregnant, I would not have accepted this ride. The COA should have called 112.”
In addition, his car must be thoroughly cleaned by a cleaning company. “That has been reimbursed by fastataxi. But because my backseat had to dry for two days, I couldn’t work for two days and I lost sales.” According to Khalaf, the COA has not responded to his request for compensation. “I would like someone from the COA to contact me to take a look. what the damage is.”
The COA states that the taxi was called via the midwife, and that this is outside the COA’s control. “We also don’t know why the taxi initially went to Emmen, but turned out to be in Scheemda. It is also unclear to us why a taxi was ordered instead of an ambulance.”
COA will discuss the lost turnover with the taxi driver.