Krishnagar, Oct. 5: His counterparts across Bengal may be attracting flak for neglecting patients, but a Naihati doctor has been hailed as a hero after coming to the rescue of a woman who had to give birth on a street after being refused admission to a maternity hospital.

Saraswati Ghosh, a resident of Bhatpara in Naihati, North 24-Parganas, bordering Nadia, about 45 km from Calcutta, was taken by her sister Lakshmi around 11 last night to Matri Sadan, a maternity hospital run by the Naihati municipality after experiencing labour pains.

Lakshmi said Saraswati, 22, used to visit the Naihati state general hospital.

?But last night, it was a case of emergency and I felt it would be better for me to go to Matri Sadan,? she said.

But, the durwan at Matri Sadan refused to let them enter. Saraswati had no option but to give birth on the pavement, just a stone?s throw away from a private nursing home run by Tarun Adhikari.

The doctor, who was entering the nursing home at the time, heard Saraswati crying in pain.

Rushing out, he found Lakshmi with a new-born baby on her lap with the umbilical cord still attached to the placenta.

Adhikari rushed the mother and baby to the intensive care unit and ?? after several hours of resuscitation and care, the baby began to breathe normally and now both the baby and the mother are doing well?.