A heroic receptionist who saved a young Brit mum’s newborn after she gave birth during the historic Spanish blackout has told his “incredible” experience. Hotel worker Arturo Bermudez came to the holidaymaker’s rescue during her premature delivery at the Puente Real Hotel in Torremolinos.
Heroic Arturo Bermudez helped save a tot’s life during its premature birth, and it was quite a dramatic scene at the Puente Real Hotel. A Brit staying at the hotel sought help after her waters broke in the middle of the night, which coincided with Spain’s horror power outages. The newborn was in a critical condition on Tuesday morning after suffering complications in the dead of night during the devastating blackouts. However, in their latest update, police said the tot was in a “stable” condition after being rushed to the Materno Infantil Hospital in Malaga.
Receptionist Bermudez, 40, shared how he caught the baby after it “dropped out” of its mum’s womb before performing life-saving CPR. The whole incident took place around 3 am on Tuesday morning, just after power had been restored in the area following a horror blackout. The British holidaymaker, in her twenties, was 30 weeks pregnant when she went into labor and is also now in a stable condition.
Bermudez described the baby as being “dead” when it was born, with its lips turning purple. He mentioned how fortunate he was to be next to the mum when the baby was born, as it could have been a lot worse if he wasn’t there to catch the baby. The Brit mum gave birth in a garden area by reception to get some fresh air, as described by the courageous receptionist. Bermudez then detailed how he saved the premature baby with CPR.
“When I saw it didn’t have a pulse, I started tapping its chest with three fingers and doing mouth-to-mouth while I got the mum to pat its bottom after putting a finger in its mouth to remove some of the reflux and cut its umbilical cord,” he said. The baby “kept coming and going” after two or three minutes of revival attempts, which prompted Bermudez to call for help.
He said, “There had been no time to call for a taxi, so I had to act on instinct and with help from a woman from 999 who was giving me advice on the phone. The ambulance people took over when they arrived.” Bermudez described the baby’s mum as “very young” and mentioned how she was in a state of shock when they took her to the hospital.
“I’m being told she’s okay and in a normal ward, and we’re just praying now her baby boy pulls through,” he said hopefully. The woman gave birth 10 weeks early in the garden of the hotel, and the hotel worker recounted his ‘incredible’ experience. Bermudez, who only has basic first aid training and has worked as an electrician as well as in hotels, found out about the British woman’s pregnancy only after her waters broke.
The mum’s partner had earlier informed hotel staff that her belly was aching and requested medicine. However, the hotel staff “couldn’t offer any” and instead offered to arrange for a taxi to take her to a doctor. Bermudez said that when he “saw her come down to reception with her trousers all wet,” he knew he had to act fast. It was an incredible experience and one I hope has a happy ending for both mother and baby. I’d like to think anyone would act the way I did in that sort of situation,” the humble man added. “I don’t consider myself to be a hero, but it’s true I brought that little baby back to life.”
Police cars patrolled traffic caused by dead traffic lights in Madrid, and the historic blackout left millions without electricity, leading to chaos and confusion. Spanish National Police confirmed that a baby was “delivered at the doors of a hotel in Torremolinos,” born prematurely with the help of emergency medical responders, the hotel receptionist, and police officers. The regional emergency service spokesman mentioned how the dramatic birth unfolded during the early hours of yesterday 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 baby showed signs of asphyxia and had gone purple, so the receptionist, following instructions from medical experts over the phone, performed CPR maneuvers until it started to cough. The devastating power outages that took place during the fortunate birth left millions of people without electricity and trapped thousands in lifts or in sweltering-hot trains with no air conditioning, resulting in five deaths.
Electricity had been restored to nearly 90% of mainland Spain by early on Tuesday, the grid operator REE said. Power was also restored overnight to around 6.2 million households in Portugal out of 6.5 million, according to the national electricity grid operator. Lights came on again in Madrid and in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon, on Monday night to massive cheers. Employees stood inside a supermarket without lights in Burgos, and supermarkets were swamped with people wanting to stock up in case of shortages.
