Pregnant New Yorker Who Gave Birth During Sandy Was Given An Epidural Using Light From A Cellphone

Just before Monday evening’s storm that ravaged the east coast of America, Julie Alemany went into labor.

It was at around 6 pm when Julie traveled to the hospital, but any hopes of her having a safe and normal birth were thrown out of the window with the arrival of Hurricane Sandy to US shores.

Alemany and her husband Doran Markus had to flee the West Village apartment, which they were staying in ahead of her expected Saturday due date, arriving at New York University Hospital just before the storm hit.

But at around 9 pm, her eighth floor maternity ward was plunged into darkness and chaos ensued. “Suddenly, I hear a lot of commotion outside and the word ‘Fire!’,” Julie told The Daily News,”There was smoke at the end of the corridor, everyone was running.”

Fortunately, this fire proved to be a false alarm, but it soon became apparent that the hospital would need to be evacuated.

Julie was still experiencing painful contractions at this point in time and was in no position to run from the scene. So with the hospital still unlit, Julie asked for her pain to be relieved. A doctor then provided a low dose epidural, which was illuminated by the light of a cell phone held up by her husband.

They were ultimately placed into a waiting ambulance, but the vehicle’s driver had been drafted in from California and didn’t know the location of the Mount Sinai hospital where they were now being taken to.

At 12:48a m though, baby Micah was born and weighed 7lbs 15oz. Both mother and son were healthy, exhausted and rather bemused by the nights antics.