While dozing off on his Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu, Hawaii, Dale Glenn was woken up by his 19-year-old daughter who elbowed him.
She told him that they’re calling for a doctor. He rapidly sprung out of his seat, halfway through the six-hour flight.
A flight attendant told him that a woman on the flight was in labor in the bathroom.
Midflight Delivery Is Alarming in anyway, but particularly in this Case
Although a delivery onboard is alarming anyway, this case was particularly worrisome, i.e. the woman had no idea she was 29 weeks pregnant.
The new mom Lavinia Mounga who’s 38 said that she had no idea. The resident of Orem, Utah was headed for Honolulu for a family vacation and then experienced strong stomach cramps during the flight.
These cramps turned out to be a sign that she’s in labor. Glenn, a physician, said that this is a three-pound baby born preterm. And, this type of labor is usually faster because of the baby’s size.
Glenn who’s 52 explains that while in the bathroom, Mounga caught the baby and called for help before she passed out.
This was a chaotic scene in the airplane and the flight attendants were looking for healthcare workers while trying to keep other passengers calm.
There Was Medical Staff to Help Mounga & Raymond
The good news for Mounga and her unexpected and premature son she later named Raymond were the team of medical professionals who were also onboard, including Glenn, a family medicine physician in the Hawaii Pacific Health and the three neonatal ICU nurses from Missouri.
The nurses were headed for a vacation and were immersed in their TV shows when they heard someone searching for help, explained Lani Bamfield, 26, a nurse in the North Kansas City Hospital.
She went to see what’s happening and saw Mounga holding a little baby in her arms.
Together with her colleagues, Amanda Beeding and Mimi Ho, they rushed to help her. Despite treating premature babies in their workplace on the daily, they’ve never done it on a plane.
Ho and Bamfield focused on the baby while Beeding was helping Mounga deliver the placenta in the bathroom. Glenn was the most worried for the baby.
Unfortunately, Raymond’s breathing wasn’t good and he wasn’t crying. They expected more noise. This was a quiet delivery, he explained.
The Healthcare Workers Formed a Makeshift NICU
Since the baby wasn’t well and considering they were 40,000 feet in the air and three hours away from landing, they decided to make a makeshift NICU using the help of the staff and passengers.
However, because they lacked medical supplies, they had to be creative and used an Apple watch to monitor the baby’s heart rate and a shoelace to cut the umbilical cord.
They also managed to make a small oxygen mask using first aid tape and a small baby beanie from a sock of a passenger. The goal was to maintain the baby warm since he had no fat on the body and could get cold easily.
They also made a small incubator with the hot water bottles and blankets. Unable to measure Raymond’s blood pressure and oxygen levels, they were looking to see if he was going pink or not.
The first hour was difficult, but this was one strong baby whose color steadily bettered, his breathing too, and was also becoming warmer. His mom was recovering too, considering how big a shock the whole situation was!
She said that this guy came out of nowhere and it was overwhelming.
How Could Mounga Not Know She Was Pregnant?
According to Glenn, Mounga’s pregnancy was a cryptic one-it happens when a woman is carrying a child, but she doesn’t have any signs until late in pregnancy or when labor starts.
Often times, it happens because of hormonal imbalance. And, it’s more common than you think, he added. She says that she and her son were the luckiest to have the medical crew on the plane with them.
As gratitude, Glenn’s family choose the baby’s middle name which is Kaimana or the power of sea in Hawaiian. And, Mounga accepted considering he was born 500 miles over the Pacific.
Congrats!!
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