A TAXI driver ended up with an unexpected extra passenger when a woman gave birth in the back of his cab.
Rob Kadam, 50, who works for A2B Cars, was called to pick up a couple from a house in Hucknall on Friday afternoon.
The heavily-pregnant woman asked to be taken to City Hospital.
"She had been to the hospital earlier that day but they had sent her home and told her to come back when the pain returned," Mr Kadam, of Windmill Grove, Hucknall, said.
Within a few minutes in the car, Mr Kadam said, the woman started to scream out in pain.
"She seemed to be in absolute agony," he said.
Mr Kadam, a dad-of-two, rang an ambulance from his hands-free phone but was told it would take around 15 minutes to get to him.
"They told me to wait somewhere for them but I thought that was ludicrous.
"If something had gone wrong, it would have been a matter of life and death, not only for the mum but also for the baby."
He hung up the phone and drove to Nottingham City Hospital.
But then the father started shouting that the baby was coming out.
Mr Kadam said: "I tried to stay focused on the road and on getting them to the hospital but I also tried to calm the dad down and said, 'Don't worry, everything will be fine'."
"When we passed the Gala Bingo club, not far from the City Hospital, I heard the baby crying and I thought that was a good sign.
"We got to the hospital just two minutes after that and the staff there were brilliant, looking after them immediately."
Mr Kadam said the baby boy was fit and well and released from hospital with the mum the next day.
He said he had never experienced so much excitement.
"I will never forget that day," he said. "I've never been under so much pressure. It was an adrenalin rush. When I told my wife, Tina, she just couldn't believe it.
"If anything had gone wrong it would have been with me forever. But it all turned out fine – like a miracle."
