Mumbai, 16 Oct

An alert Mumbai man helped a woman, who went into labour in a moving local train, deliver a baby on a railway platform with the help of a doctor who guided him over a video call.

Vikas Bedre, 27, a video cameraman, was travelling in a local train on Tuesday at around 1 am, when a woman in the adjacent compartment went into labour as the train neared Ram Mandir station in north Mumbai.

Ambika Jha, 24, the woman, a resident of Suburban Virar, was accompanied by her nephew and niece.

What happened later was shared by an eyewitness on social media.

In an Instagram post, Manjeet Dhillon said the man noticed the woman -- in severe pain and immediately pulled the train’s emergency chain to stop it.

“This man is truly brave -- words aren’t enough to describe him. The baby was already halfway out. It truly felt like God had sent him there for a reason,” Dhillon wrote.

Bedre said he immediately called his doctor friend Devika Deshmukh, who after realising the gravity of the situation, switched to video call to guide him on how to proceed with the delivery.

“He managed to get a pair of scissors from a tea stall on the platform,” the doctor told a Marathi news channel on Thursday. He also gathered some bed sheets to help prepare for the delivery, she added.

“I was very scared, but Devika’s help gave me courage. It was because of her guidance that I was able to manage the delivery,” said Bedre, who was supposed to catch a flight, but stayed on to help.

Both the mother and the baby boy are doing well.

A video of what happened on the platform was shared by Dhillon. It got several reactions, with some praising Bedre as a "real-life Rancho" (from the film ‘3 Idiots’) for his quick thinking and compassion, and turning the railway platform into an impromptu delivery room.

“We all tried our best -- we called several doctors, but the ambulance was taking time to arrive. Finally, a female doctor guided him over a video call, and he did exactly what she instructed. His courage in that moment was beyond words,” Dhillon wrote.

Dhillon also claimed that the woman’s family had taken her to a nearby hospital, but were told that the delivery couldn’t be done there, so they had to bring her back on the train.

After the delivery, the woman's relatives took her to the civic-run Cooper Hospital in a private ambulance, said a Government Railway Police officer.

NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Thursday felicitated Vikas Bedre, who hails from Pawar's constituency of Karjat Jamkhed.

Bedre made Maharashtra as well as Karjat Jamkhed proud with his good Samaritan act, the MLA said.