Careful! Baby on board!
On her trip to Honolulu, Lavina Mounga, 29 weeks pregnant, was in for a surprise when she started going through labor!
Dr. Dale Glenn, a family medicine physician for Hawaii Pacific Health, was fortunately onboard, along with three NICU nurses. Together, they were able to help Mounga deliver her new baby.
"I don't know how a patient gets so lucky as to have three neonatal intensive care nurses onboard the same flight when she is in emergency labor, but that was the situation we were in ... Everybody jumped in together and everyone helped out," he commented.
The three NICU nurses were Lani Bamfield, Amanda Beeding, and Mimi Ho.
"We're all trying to work in a very small, confined space in an airplane, which is pretty challenging. But the teamwork was great," Glenn added.
Glenn mentioned how an emergency call ensued about halfway through the flight, with staff asking passengers if there was a doctor available. He made it clear to them he was a doctor. Along with the nurses, they used shoelaces to sever the umbilical cord and other random equipment, like an Apple Watch to measure the baby's heart rate, to make sure newborn Raymond was okay.
Mounga said, “It has been very overwhelming ... I’m just so lucky that there were three NICU nurses and a doctor on the plane to help me, and help stabilize him and make sure he was ok for the duration of the flight.”
@juliabernice It’s the ‘baby being born while we’re above the Pacific Ocean’ for me
♬ original sound - Julia Hansen
Upon landing in Honolulu, Mounga was escorted by medical crews to be taken to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. A few days later, Glenn and the nurses visited her and Raymond.
The situation became popular over TikTok, as a passenger recorded everything. With over 10 million views, the video showed people cheering about learning of the newborn from the plane's captain.
Mounga will definitely have a story to tell baby Raymond when he is old enough!
Have you ever heard of something like this happening? Let us know in the comments.