What began as a routine late-night dispatch turned into a life-changing moment for Hardeep Singh Toor, an Indian-origin cab driver in Calgary, Canada on Tuesday. On a bitter winter night, Toor picked up a couple rushing to hospital—only to realise minutes into the ride that the woman was in advanced labour.
According to local media reports, Toor received an urgent call on Tuesday night, flagged simply as a hospital drop. When he arrived, he found a visibly pregnant woman in labour pain, assisted by her companion. “She was in pain,” Toor later told Canadian reporters, recalling how quickly the gravity of the situation became clear.
Why did Toor not call an ambulance?
“It was a pregnant lady, and her companion was helping her get in (the cab). She was in pain,” Toor told Canadian TV on Thursday. Toor realised the urgency of the situation as soon as he saw the couple in distress.
“My thought was I should call an ambulance… but looking at the weather with -23 degree temperature with slippery roads at night, I thought maybe it’s not the right call,” he told CTV. Her body language was telling me she did not have the time. … I decided to drive,” he added.
Baby born in back seat with hospital already in sight
What followed was, in Toor’s words, “the longest 30 minutes” of his four-year driving career. Toor’s journey to the Hospital was punctuated by regular red lights with the sounds of labour from the back seat involving kicking, shouting and growing urgency testing his nerves at every intersection.
Just blocks away from the hospital, Peter Lougheed Centre, Toor noticed that the kicking and screaming had stopped in the backseat. The baby was born in the back seat with the building already in sight.
“I did not stop. … I was thinking I should get there as soon as possible to get them (to medical attention),” Toor said. As soon as the cab entered the hospital premises, it was greeted by staff rushing to help the couple and the newborn baby. “When I got there and saw the staff running to the car, I stepped out—I let them do whatever they needed,” Toor added.
Toor further said that he stayed around the hospital for a while and was later informed by the staff that the mother and baby were doing well. “It’s my first experience getting two people in and three people out,” said Toor, who has driven cabs for four years. He called it a “proud moment.”
In a city battered by winter storms, the episode has struck a chord online—less for its drama than for its quiet humanity. In the space of a single cab ride, a routine night shift became a reminder that sometimes, ordinary people step into extraordinary roles without any warning or disclaimer.
