Amelia Franchesca Solís, who weighed five pounds at birth, could be a godsend to her 25-year old parents, if promises are kept. The little girl was born to her mother Miguelina Amador as the latter, accompanied by her husband, was on her way to the Maternidad La Altagracia for a check-up. The mother of three other children said that she was not expecting for another week, but when feeling birthing pains took the bus to make it to the public maternity hospital. She didn’t make it, giving birth at around 7:30 am on board the bus when it was crossing the Abraham Lincoln. The bus driver tried to make it to the hospital, but only got as far as the Clínica Julio C. Echavarría on Avenida Independencia, where he stopped to let the lady off. Her umbilical cord with her daughter was cut at that private clinic. Moved by the first birth on board an OMSA bus, the government bus company director, Diógenes Castillo promised to cover her food needs until she was four years old, a job for the father in OMSA, and to start negotiations to secure for the family of six a government apartment. Castillo visited the impoverished family in their Quita Sueño, Haina home.
