A 36-year-old mother gave birth to her son prematurely inside the backseat of a taxi while she was being rushed to the hospital and the taxi driver’s action thereafter sparked an outrage.
Karolina Dabrowska, delivered her son Sebastian in the backseat of an Addison Lee, which had parked outside Aldwych One hotel near Covent Garden, Metro UK reports.
The driver however, banged on the doors of the ambulance with which the woman was conveyed and demanded that her husband Matthew Errington, 43, either cleans up his car or give him some extra cash for the mess.
Errington who was stunned at the driver’s manners said: “The actions of the taxi driver at the most stressful moment of my life was appalling.”
He revealed that his wife went into labour at home in Peckham which prompted them to call a cab to rush her to University College Hospital but her waters broke on their way and they stopped and helped her pull out the baby.
Sebastian was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck but was fortunately saved by a hotel who is a doctor.
Errington added: “At that point the taxi driver starts asking me for money. I said, ‘my son’s not breathing, leave me alone’. The doctor came out and saved my son’s life.”
The cab company’s ‘fouling charge’ can be up to £100.
The Chief Executive of Addison Lee, Andy Bolan, apologised to the new parents in a letter and refunded them the fares they paid to and fro the hospital.
A spokesman said: “We would like to wholeheartedly apologise again for the service that Matthew and Karolina experienced, at what was a stressful time for them.
“As soon as we investigated what had happened we refunded their fares for both journeys to and from hospital, discussed with the driver how he could have been more sensitive to Matthew and Karolina’s needs at a difficult time and are issuing guidance to all our drivers to ensure this unfortunate situation can never happen again.
“As a gesture of goodwill we have also made a donation to the premature and sick babies charity, Bliss.”
