Brit tourist gives birth to premature baby in hotel garden amid horror Spain power outage with help of hero receptionist
A BRIT tourist gave birth to a 10-week premature baby in the garden of a Costa del Sol hotel during Spain’s massive power outage.
The newborn was in a critical condition this morning after suffering complications in the dead of night during the devastating blackouts.
A British woman in her early twenties sought help from a receptionist after her waters broke in the early hours of this morning.
The hotel worker tried to call a taxi but it was too late, so had to help the woman give birth in the garden of the hotel.
The receptionist even had to give CPR to the new-born, who initially didn’t have a pulse.
The alarming episode happened at the Puente Real Hotel in Torremolinos, at around 3am this morning.
Emergency medics rushed the new mother to hospital in an ambulance with a police escort.
She was 30 weeks pregnant when she went into labour – while a full term is 40 weeks.
The baby was said to still be in a “critical” condition this morning.
A spokesman for the local emergency services confirmed this morning: “A British woman gave birth to a premature baby near reception at the Puente Real hotel in Torremolinos during the early hours of this morning in the midst of the crisis caused by the blackout on the Spanish mainland.
“The receptionist of the establishment assisted her and even performed CPR on the newborn, who had no pulse.
“The receptionist tried to call a taxi and notify the emergency services, but there wasn’t enough time.
“The woman gave birth in the garden at the entrance of the hotel.
“It was a premature birth, as the girl was in the 30th week of gestation.
“The baby showed signs of asphyxia and had gone purple so the receptionist, following instructions from medical experts over the phone, performed CPR manoeuvres until it started to cough.
“The paramedics after they arrived were escorted by the National Police to the Materno Infantil Hospital in Malaga where the new-born was admitted in critical condition, although with a pulse.”
The condition of the baby’s mum was not known this morning, although she was described as “remaining in bed” at the Malaga hospital.
Spain and Portugal’s catastrophic power outages on Monday made the already-complicated birth even trickier.
Power has now been restored across most of the two countries after a day of havoc.
Airports and hospitals shut down and trains screeched to a halt across the peninsula on Monday – prompting Spain to declare a national emergency.
Spain‘s train service came to a complete stop, leaving huge crowds stranded at stations, and Madrid’s underground network was evacuated.
Panic-buying shoppers stripped the shelves of groceries, fearing shortages of household goods.
Spain’s Interior Ministry deployed 30,000 police officers to maintain order as both governments held emergency cabinet meetings.
Air traffic was slashed to “half capacity” as flights were cancelled from a number of airports – with Lisbon cancelling all arrivals for hours.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said: “This is something that has never happened before.”
About 61% of Spain’s power was restored by Monday night, with electricity returning first to the Basque Country, Barcelona, and parts of Madrid.
On Tuesday morning, Spanish power company Red Eléctrica (REE) said 99.95% of the power is back on.
In Portugal, grid operator REN confirmed 85 out of 89 substations were back online, including the capital Lisbon.
On the streets, people celebrated.
Some cooked meals by candlelight and others flocked to plazas in impromptu gatherings.
The cause of the power cuts is still not known – with theories ranging from a Russian sabotage attack to a freak atmospheric event.
Portugal’s power network said on Monday that the most likely cause was a system failure caused by a phenomenon called “induced atmospheric variation”.
This refers to changes in the Earth’s atmosphere in response to external factors.