#Hero nurse stops to deliver homeless woman’s baby on street: ‘It was fate’

Lorrainne Pingol brought a life into the world Tuesday — all without putting down her backpack.

The 29-year-old nurse from Makati, Philippines, was already running late for work at a health maintenance organization (HMO) when local rescue workers flagged her down after spotting her white uniform.

Seconds later, the masked health-care hero was delivering a homeless woman’s baby just off the bustling Osmeña Highway in south Manila.

“There was no other person to help them but me at that period of time, so I helped,” Pingol told ABS-CBN News, calling it “fate” that she was in the proverbial right place at the right time. Or perhaps it was something bigger than that.

“Maybe God really intended for me to wake up late, so I could help the mother,” she said.

None of the all-male responders were qualified to finish the emergency delivery by cutting the umbilical cord, Christian Jacinto, a village councilman who also headed up the rescue team, told the local news outlet.

Pingol not only cut the cord — she also made sure the entire placenta was removed from the mother’s uterus.

She pointed out that nearly a decade had passed since she last assisted a baby delivery while interning at Far Eastern University in Manila. The nurse contracted leukemia in 2013, so she had to stop working in hospitals to avoid further compromising her immune system.

But when duty calls, you listen, she said.

“We pledged to be good Samaritans,” Pingol said. “Wherever you are, even when you’re outside work, when anyone needs you, in the name of humanity you have to help because you’re a nurse.”

Both mother and baby are now hospitalized but doing well following the surprise delivery, according to CNN Philippines.