VIDEO

Obama grabs light-headed pregnant woman before she falls

US President Barack Obama (centre) reaches out to help Affordable Care Act beneficiary Karmel Allison (right), who began to faint during the president's speech about healthcare from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Monday, Oct 21,
US President Barack Obama (centre) reaches out to help Affordable Care Act beneficiary Karmel Allison (right), who began to faint during the president's speech about healthcare from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Monday, Oct 21, 2013. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

AMERICAN president Barack Obama reached out to help grab a pregnant woman just before she passed out in the middle of his speech.

The president was delivering a speech on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the Rose Garden when 20-week pregnant Karmel Allison, a prospective beneficiary of the Act, almost fainted behind him, reported CNN.

Ms Allison, who has been living with Type 1 diabetes since age 9, was invited to attend the White House event on Monday. The San Diego resident got wobbly about 25 minutes into the speech and started falling backwards on the podium.

An attendee standing behind her quickly broke her fall while others helped stabilise her.

Mr Obama also turned around and reached for her arm, and told her "I got ya ... You're ok".

And as Ms Allison was still trying to recompose herself, the quick-witted president had turned back to his audience and quipped: "This happens when I talk too long."

An aide then came on stage to escort Ms Allison. She was treated by a White House doctor.

She told CNN a few hours later that "I hadn't had that much to drink that morning because I was worried about possibly needing to go to the bathroom during the speech.

"As the sun hit me, I got a little light-headed."

She later took to Twitter to thank Mr Obama, saying "Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me!"

Her husband David Allison also thanked the president for catching his wife, and assured skeptics that his wife "isn't a plant" working for the Obama administration, and "just a diabetes researcher with a keen interest in and admiration for the ACA :)".

Ms Allison, a representative of the American Diabetes Association, works in the field of computational biology at the University of California, reported the Daily Mail.

"It was an honour to be there and I'm rather sorry I fainted in the middle of the speech, but I was really happy to be able to be on stage at that moment," she told CNN.

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