What’s the biggest prize you have ever won at the bingo? A few hundred pounds? A cuddly toy?
Well for Tammy Hall, the answer to that question would be a new born baby!
That’s right, it was ‘Doctor’s Order’ at Club3000 in Blackpool, as one woman went in pregnant and came out with a babe in arms.
Safe to say that although everyone who turned up that night was hoping for some excitement, no one was expecting that sort of drama.
I’ve always known that anything can happen at the bingo but this is about as left field as it gets, although by all accounts the staff on the night jumped into action once they found out what was going on.
It’s not the first time a bingo baby has been born either.
Bingo Hall Staff Help Mother Give Birth
The woman in question was 30 year old Tammy Hall, and she was playing at the newly opened Club3000 in Blackpool, which hasn’t even been running for a year yet.
A mother of 3 already, Tammy was a few days overdue and had experienced contractions the night before, but had been told to go home and wait as the baby didn’t look like it was going to come for another few days.
So her Mum suggested Tammy head to the bingo with her to help pass the time and take her mind off things.
Well, it had the opposite effect.
“I thought I may win a prize and I certainly did, the biggest prize of all a new healthy baby boy.”
Tammy had gone to the toilet after getting uncomfortable, and didn’t come back.
The birth had started while she was in there and it didn’t take long for people to notice she hadn’t come back, and when she was discovered, it was all hands on deck.
Tammy went on to praise the staff who helped her and took control of the situation, saying:
“The staff were incredible and so calm and caring, a special thank you to Phil who realised I was in distress, Larry who then phoned the ambulance and Kairen who remained with me until the ambulance arrived”
She gave birth to a healthy boy weighing 8lb 9oz shortly after the ambulance arrived, and called him Teddie. Ahh.
Tammy has missed a golden opportunity to name her baby, Bingo, if you ask me. Her surname is already ‘Hall’, and I think baby Bingo Hall has a certain charm to it!
Baby Named ‘Gala’ After Bingo Hall Birth
Incredibly, this is not the first time a baby has been born in a bingo hall – it’s not even the first time this century.
Back in 2007, heavily pregnant 26 year old Shelley Smith felt a sudden pain in the middle of a game and rushed to the toilet.
By the time staff got to her they could already see the baby’s head.
This story had a happy ending too, as a healthy baby girl was born shortly afterwards, and in a little nod to where she was born, mum Shelley had some fun with her name.
She called her daughter Mika Gala Smith.
The club Shelley had been playing in was a Gala you see, the one in Castleford in West Yorkshire (it’s a Buzz now).
This was when naming babies after the place they were born or conceived was still a thing – good job she wasn’t born in a Club3000, as that would be a seriously weird name!