HONOLULU (KHON) — A Delta flight from Salt Lake City, Utah landed in Honolulu Wednesday with an unexpected passenger on board after a woman gave birth to a baby boy mid-flight.
Several nurses and doctors, who happened to be on the plane, assisted with the birth.
Kansas City nurse Lani Summer Bamfield wrote in a Facebook post :
“If anyone would like to know how our trip to Hawaii is going… here’s how it started. We delivered a 26-27 weeker in the airplane bathroom, in the middle of the ocean, with three NICU nurses, a Physicians assistant, and a family medicine doctor we were able to make it THREE HOURS before we could finally land but the baby and mom did great. God was definitely with us up there”
According to Department of Transportation spokesperson Jai Cunningham, the pilot and crew followed protocol and alerted them of the situation prior to landing.
“It was a medical assist, it wasn’t deemed a medical emergency so that sort of notifies you that mom and baby were in good shape,” Cunningham explained. “Then the crew emergency medical services group met them and were able to transport them to a nearby hospital.”
A spokesperson for Kapiolani Medical Center said in a text message:
“Mom and baby were brought to Kapiolani and are doing good. Mom has been discharged already but baby is still in the NICU as he was born early.”
Cunningham says this type of thing does not happen very often.
“It’s not that common for childbirth, obviously cause most of the time once women get far along in their pregnancy doctors kind of advise them against doing such things because you’re on a plane for five, six, seven hours,” he explained.
A spokesperson from Delta Airlines confirmed in a statement the baby was born aboard their fight and said:
“The safety of our crew and customers is our top priority. our crews are well trained to manage a number of on board medical scenarios. Every aircraft is equipped with medical equipment and crews have access to expert counsel during flight when an issue occurs.”