Passengers on a Saudia flight between Jeddah and Cairo were in for a surprise on April 23, when a doctor and cabin crew delivered a baby.
According to the airline, a passenger reported being in pain about an hour and a half into the flight. Upon closer inspection, two members of Saudia cabin crew found that the passenger was going into labour.
The Saudia staff happened to lcoate a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Najla Saad Mohammed, among the passengers, who used on-board medical equipment to successfully deliver the baby ten minutes before the flight landed.
The newborn and his parents, identified as Laila Shukri and Ahmed Abu El-Nasr, were then taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
In the statement, Saudia said that cabin crew are given specialised medical training on how to deal with various in-flight medical emergencies, and that all its aircraft contain “medical bags” with the medical devices and medicines necessary to respond to emergencies.
In 2016, a woman delivered a premature baby on a Saudia flight between Jeddah and New York, forcing the flight to be dump fuel and make an emergency diversion to London Heathrow.
In a more recent incident in 2017, a baby born on a Jet Airways flight between Saudi Arabia and the Indian city of Kochi was granted a free life-time travel pass on the airline.
SOURCE : ALBILAD
