8-year-old boy helps mom give birth in emergency
This young footballer made the catch of a lifetime.
An 8-year-old boy in Westlake, Ohio, saved the day by delivering his baby brother when his mom went into labor with no one else around.
“I called the ambulance, then I rushed upstairs to get the towels,” young Malone Matthews told Fox 8 while describing his DIY doctoring.
The incredible saga began on January 27 after the boy’s mother, Peilar Matthews, started experiencing discomfort while the two were home alone.
She initially chalked up the feeling up to “Braxton Hicks” — preliminary contractions during pregnancy — and went to sleep, unaware that her bun was ready to come out of the oven.
The next morning, Matthews realized that this was no dry run.
“When I got up at 5, that’s when they [the contractions] started coming back to back,” Matthews described. Unfortunately, the only other person home was 8-year-old Malone, so she told him to dial 911, which he did.
However, it quickly became apparent that the cavalry wouldn’t arrive in time. So, left with few other options, little Malone decided to take matters into his own hands.
It was at that moment that the aspiring football player made a game-winning play.
“She was, like, pushing, and I, like, catch … like not catch the baby, but … yeah, catch the baby,” recalled the bro-BGYN, who became the first person to welcome baby Rushane into the world.
Shortly thereafter, emergency services arrived and transported Matthews and her newborn to a Westlake hospital.
When asked about his incredible deed, the prenatal prodigy said he was proud of doing something the “doctors didn’t,” before quipping that he managed to “save my mom some money” as well.
Malone’s father, Malachi Brown, was awestruck by his son’s on-the-fly medical skills. “A lot of kids would have panicked under pressure,” the proud father gushed. “For him to be able to go get towels, call 911, call the ambulance and not panic so much, I’m very proud of him.”
He then joked, “After delivering a baby, how much pressure can you put on an 8-year-old?”
Brown said he’d previously encouraged his pride and joy to become a doctor, never fathoming that the boy would achieve such a feat of physician-ing by age 8.
Ultimately, Malone’s dad is glad that his son “stood up and did the right thing.”
“I know he could do it again if he had to, but he probably doesn’t want to,” he said. “But I know that he can.”
This isn’t the first time a courageous kid was forced to deliver a younger sibling in an emergency.
In November, a 10-year-old Missouri girl truly lived up to her name, Miracle Moore, when she helped her mom give birth at home.