A pregnant Nova Scotian woman in labour, on route to the hospital, faced an unexpected obstacle: a black bear.
While Michelle Oliver and her husband Matthew were driving to the hospital, they collided with a bear, triggering the air bags and completely smashing the front of their red Ford pick-up truck.
Oliver, who is 32-years-old, said the accident happened around 3 a.m.
“I remember looking at the clock because I was starting to get another contraction with my husband saying, ‘Only 20 more minutes!’ I shut my eyes because of the pain,” Oliver said in an interview with CBC News.
“I opened my eyes and the airbags were in my face. There was smoke everywhere, and there was this huge body on the hood of the truck.”
Immediately following the collision, the bear ran into the nearby woods. The provincial Department of Natural Resources did not have any information on the bear’s condition, but onlookers said they could hear the bear after the accident nearby.
Following the accident, an ambulance arrived on scene and whisked the couple off to the hospital. Neither was found with any serious injuries.
Just an hour and a half later, at 4:35 a.m., Oliver gave birth to a healthy young boy, aptly named Morgan Bear.
“Everybody was saying to us, you’ve got to name him Bear or Beary,” Oliver said. “But we’re all ‘M’ names, so we already had an ‘M’ name picked out.”
Compared to what Oliver experienced, giving birth on a plane during a transoceanic flight doesn’t seem too bad after all.
