Skip to main content

Doctor Delivers Baby Mid-Flight, 30,000 Feet In The Air

By

A UCLA doctor on an international flight from Bali to Los Angeles delivered a baby 30,000 feet in the air.
Dr. Angelica Zen, a UCLA resident physician, was on her way back from her honeymoon on a China Airlines flight last Thursday when one of the passengers, a Taiwanese woman, went into labor early, according to ABC 7. The mother, who has not been identified, was only 32 weeks pregnant when her water broke six hours into the long 19-hour flight, ABC News reports. A pregnant woman normally gives birth at 40 weeks.

When crew members asked for help, Zen stepped in even though she had never delivered a baby on her own before. "My training is in internal medicine pediatrics so we do adults and kids but really no pregnant women at all, so since my training we haven't done much OBGYN," Zen told ABC 7. "I was a little bit nervous."

Zen said it was difficult to deliver because she had so few supplies, but flight attendants assisted her like nurses. It also helped that Zen was able to speak Mandarin with the mother. Zen said that the baby looked healthy after the delivery.

Instead of the China Air flight heading to Los Angeles, the pilots diverted it to the nearest airport in Anchorage, Alaska for the mother's safety. However, the mother gave birth 30 minutes before the plane landed, the Huffington Post reports. She was taken to a local hospital before the plane left to its intended course, Los Angeles.

One of the passengers, Amira Rajput, recorded a video of the flight attendants holding the newborn, who was wrapped in a towel. You can hear passengers clapping. One woman in the video said, "This is a once in a lifetime thing." Rajput told ABC News that the mother was "tough as nails," and that she bit down on blankets to stop from screaming.


When the plane arrived in Anchorage, Rajput said a border patrol agent asked to see the mother's passport. "He told me that this is something foreign women do, to try and deliver overseas for citizenship," Rajput said. "This is a political issue. People die to come to this country."
As for the baby's nationality, Civil Aeronautics Administration told the China Post that it will depend on what the Anchorage hospital issues on the birth certificate since the mother gave birth in U.S airspace.

Source - [1]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EARTH FACTS

By
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets. The Earth is the only planet in our solar system not to be named after a Greek or Roman deity. The Earth was formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago and is the only known planet to support life. Planet Profile Mass: 5,972,190,000,000,000 billion kg Equatorial Diameter: 12,756 km Polar Diameter: 12,714 km Equatorial Circumference: 40,030 km Known Moons: 1 Notable Moons: The Moon Orbit Distance: 149,598,262 km (1 AU) Orbit Period: 365.26 Earth days Surface Temperature: -88 to 58°C Size Of The Earth Compared To The Moon Facts About The Earth The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing: This deceleration is happening almost imperceptibly, at approximately 17 milliseconds per hundred years, although the rate at which it occurs is not perfectly uniform. This has the effect of lengthening our days, but it happens so slowly that it could be as much as 140 million years before the l...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Is The Largest Number?

By
Humans have been using numbers for thousands of years. It is believed that the concept of numbers first originated when prehistoric humans began using their fingers to count. This eventually evolved into sign language and then tally marks on objects like sand, walls and sticks. We’ve come a long way. Now we use calculators and computers to count our large numbers. We even have a word for numbers that are without a limit. Sometimes, it seems like the only people who can make sense of it all are the mathematical savants. One reader wanted to know: What is the largest number in mathematics? NOT SO OBVIOUS So what’s the largest number? The answer should be pretty obvious. Infinity, right? But that’s not entirely correct. Infinity in the strictest sense, is not a number at all. It’s a concept. An idea. And a mind bending one at that. Infinity is a concept which means “a quantity without bound or end”. The definition of infinity in mathematics states that no matter how big a nu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nutcase Couple Hang From Cliff 2700ft Above Rio

By
While most people get a little bit worried about heights when climbing up a ladder, Leonardo Edson Pereira, 23, and his girlfriend Victoria Medeiros Nader, 18, are very different. In fact, after seeing images of the couple hanging off a 2,700 ft cliff in Rio, Brazil, it’s safe to say the couple pretty much break the mould when it comes to heights and being daredevils. Pereira took his girlfriend with him on his latest thrill seeking adventure, with Pedra de Gavea their conquest this time. The images really are breathtaking and depict just one of the many times Pereira has climbed the Pedra de Gavea. He claimed: "I love living on the edge! I know people think it’s dangerous and crazy but it makes me feel alive,’ Leonardo says. It is really high and I do just hang on using my arm strength. I have to trust myself not to fall." The literal translation of the rock’s name means ‘Rock of the Topsail’, and while the images certainly are something, given ...
Post a Comment
Read more