‘Well done, officers, you had a baby boy’

Stuck in traffic and despairing as his wife was about to give birth in a busy bus lane, Jesmond Cassar was mightily relieved when three police officers came to the rescue. These three “guardian angels” escorted them through heavy traffic, and they made it to hospital just in time. Baby Julian was born as his mother was being whisked through the corridors of the emergency department. Alexia Cassar’s contractions started at 4am and when they were at five-minute intervals, the Cassars called the hospital but “they told us it was still too early”. Mr Cassar, however, was fully aware that when his wife had their first son Juan, who is now eight, her contractions had speeded up quickly and the baby popped out. With this in mind, they called Mater Dei again at 5.30am and were told to “come over”. Some time passed as they packed, awoke their son and took him to his grandmother’s home in Żabbar. And as the morning rush hour traffic set in, Ms Cassar’s contractions started coming very fast. The 42-year-old father suddenly feared that his second son was about to be born in his car and, feeling he had no alternative, pulled over in a bus lane in busy Garibaldi Road, Luqa, at around...