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  • 1 year ago
Machel Montano, the boy wonder who according to doctors, wasn't supposed to make it into this world, but he did.


Machel beat the odds in that maternity ward and from there on, there was no stopping him.


Fifty years on, Machel is a mega star and a legend, homegrown, with worldwide acclaim.
Transcript
00:00I got up this Sunday morning, you know, and I started to feel kind of upset, and then
00:10suddenly I started to hemorrhage, pain, when I tell you, pain.
00:16On the morning of November 24th, 1974, Marshall's mother was rushed to the hospital in severe
00:21pain and hemorrhaging, even though the baby wasn't expected until December 16th.
00:26When I got to the hospital and the doctor checked for heartbeat, there was no heartbeat,
00:32and he said to me, this baby is going to be stillborn.
00:37One of Mrs. Montano's worst fears was confirmed.
00:42So the doctor was there sitting down, and he was whistling, and I said, Doctor, don't
00:47whistle, no, because I know you're doing that because you want me to feel comfortable.
00:52I said, could you cut me and take the baby?
00:55He said, no, it doesn't make sense to cut for a dead baby, I said, OK.
01:00Due to her heavy blood loss, Mrs. Montano's husband, as well as a worker at the hospital,
01:05had to give her blood.
01:07Five to ten in the evening is when they brought my husband's blood, the first pint, right?
01:15And right away, I started to feel a little movement, not from movement of the baby, but
01:22a little bit in my passage, you know?
01:24I said, Doctor, I'm feeling so and so, and he came and he said, OK, Montano, we have
01:29to do it now.
01:35No pain, no movement, no pushing, no contractions, and he said, come on, Montano, force.
01:43And I closed my eyes, and I forced.
01:47A baby boy was born in silence.
01:50I just said, OK, you know, this is a stillborn baby.
01:53But suddenly, the doctor turned his back on me, and I realized he started to take ice
02:01water and throw it on the baby's heart.
02:05He started to pump out mucus, then he started to pump oxygen, and then he started to slap,
02:12slap, slap him.
02:14And then he said, not good enough, not good enough, more ice water, more pumping out the
02:20mucus, more pumping oxygen, and then more licks.
02:24And then he cried, and he said, you had a boy, and he's not going to be sick one day.
02:31The king took his first breath, and the mother sighed in relief.
02:35And they took him away to put him in the arm, in an incubator, because remember, he was
02:41supposed to be born three weeks later.
02:45When they brought him back, we said, we're going to name him Jesus, because he was not
02:51supposed to be here, and by some miracle, he was.
02:56From that moment, Mrs. Montano knew that Marshall was destined for a purpose, but she had no
03:01idea how great his journey would be.
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