Woman in labour comes second to marathon
The hospital was in view and all that stood in the way was a single intersection for a man rushing his pregnant wife to hospital to give birth.
Unfortunately, a marathon separated them.
Oxford mum Melissa Allison went into labour at 9pm on Saturday, and the couple were told to get themselves to Christchurch Hospital early the next morning.
‘‘I looked online to check road closures – I thought getting all my ducks in a row would be a smart thing to do,’’ Aaron Allison said.
He spent about 50 minutes trying to navigate the central city, before getting stuck at the intersection of Durham and St Asaph streets, where traffic was at a standstill.
Melissa’s mother, Val, who was also in the car, got out to speak to race marshals.
‘‘They said to her that they won’t stop the race for anyone,’’ Aaron Allison said.
All the while, Melissa Allison was having contractions, ‘‘kneeling facing backwards’’ in the car.
‘‘It was really uncomfortable,’’ she said. ‘‘I was panicked and I wanted to be in a safe environment.’’
‘‘I finally got out and was lean- ing on cars trying to rock my way through labour.’’
Another motorist, who was a doctor at the hospital and was trying to get in for a meeting, came across Val in a ‘‘tearful’’ state.
He took matters into his own hands. ‘‘I just thought f... it, I’ll stop the race myself.’’
‘‘I was up there waving my hands saying ‘there’s a woman in labour’ to the runners. But no-one stopped.’’
Others stuck in their cars at the intersection were in similar positions.
One was a radiographer called in for theatre, another was a person with a badly injured leg who needed to get to the emergency department, and another a man whose wife was in labour at the hospital.
‘‘He was standing there with his hands on his head. He started swearing, saying ‘I’m going to miss the birth of my child’,’’ the motorist said.
‘‘I think they’re incredibly lucky somebody didn’t die.’’
With all options exhausted, the Allisons called an ambulance after being stuck for about 20 minutes. Before it arrived, race marshals stopped runners and got them through.
‘‘Two seconds – that’s how long it took me to get my car across,’’ Aaron Allison said.
‘‘Quite selfishly it was very important for us to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. I’m a big supporter of events in the CBD . . . but it was frustrating.’’
Baby William Allison arrived at 2.52pm, weighing in at a healthy 3.25 kilograms.
Transport for Christchurch manager Ryan Cooney said traffic management had not gone ‘‘as well as hoped’’.
Riccarton Ave and Durham St had been under ‘‘manual traffic control’’, he said, where motorists were supposed to be let through when there were gaps in runners.
‘‘What we observed was because of the density of runners it became very difficult to find gaps to let people through.’’
A Canterbury District Health Board spokesman said access to the hospital had been ‘‘affected during the morning’’, but could not comment further until a debrief on ‘‘access issues’’ to be held with marathon organisers this week.