A colleague had back pain, and Kim Hansen, an intern estate agent at Trust Properties, stepped in to do a Table View, Cape Town, home showing on Friday May 31.
It turned out that Hansen was just the right person for the showing - she didn’t deliver a sale, but she did deliver a baby boy, Samuel, thanks to her previous experience as a veterinary nurse.
Hansen describes it as a “divine intervention,” that she happened to be there and successfully delivered the baby.
The elderly homeowner was stressed and on the phone when he let Hansen in to show the house. “I suddenly heard this gut-wrenching scream coming from the back,” Hansen recalled. She told her clients they ought to reschedule for another day and hurried them out.
It turned out the domestic worker had gone into labour 30 minutes earlier, and the ambulance that had been called had still not arrived. Hansen went to comfort the mom-to-be, who does not want to be named.
Assessing the situation as the ambulance was stuck in traffic on a Friday afternoon, Hansen decided “we better just operate in terms of an emergency”.
“Right from me going in there, I just felt this calmness come over me. I was saying my prayers and God was with us in the room,” Hansen said. “Jesus take the wheel, one of those moments.”
Hansen told the elderly couple to get towels, gloves, which they fetched from a hair dye kit, and a string to secure and cut the umbilical cord. After delivery, Hansen removed mucus from the baby’s mouth and monitored his colour.
After another 45 minutes, the ambulance came and took the brave mother and her baby Samuel to the hospital. It was her first baby.
“I seem to be getting credit for it, but this poor woman gave labour. I assisted in bringing the baby out, but mommy did all the work.”
Trust Properties has since set up a
fund
to help the mom and baby.
This is bringing a whole new meaning to their name, Trust Property. It is “absolutely bizarre,” Hansen commented.“The name says it all, I’m very privileged to be a part of the team and the way they’ve all corralled around the baby and setting up the trust fund.”
Hansen, a divorced single mother, said while animal work is her passion - she is even a qualified animal behaviourist specialising in canine behaviour, - “it doesn’t really pay the bills... But I do love working in property with people too.”
Some agents say they have seen it all, but this is a whole new level.
“People think agents are just salespeople, but actually we’re every bit part of the human aspect of selling a home. This just brings that a little bit to life, that we’re interacting with people and their private lives on a daily basis.”