Bacolod nurse helps deliver baby on international flight

Marchel P. Espina

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Bacolod nurse helps deliver baby on international flight
‘Many people think that what I did was a heroic act. But I only did what a nurse should do when they are in a situation like this,’ says the 25-year-old Francis Dominic Mendoza

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Delivering a baby 35,000 feet in the air wasn’t what he was expecting when he booked a flight home from Dublin, Ireland.

Francis Dominic Mendoza, 25, of Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City, was on a Qatar Airways flight on July 9 when he heard a cabin crew looking for any doctors or medical professionals on board. He got off his seat and offered his help.

The plane was traversing Thailand on its way to Manila when a 37-week-pregnant Filipino went into labor.  

Using improvised tools and a first aid kit available on the flight, Mendoza helped deliver the baby. “We wrapped the baby with a blanket and I monitored the vitals of the mother,” he said.

He said there was no medical doctor on board the plane.

He said the pilot and the cabin crew asked him if it was safe for the mother and the baby to endure 3 more hours of flight or it would be better to carry out an emergency landing in Bangkok.

“The mother was stable and there were no visible signs of bleeding. My concern was if she would have bleeding along the way, while the baby was at risk of hypothermia due to plane temperature and might develop an infection,” he recalled.

Medical responders came for the mother and the baby when the plane made an emergency landing.

He said the mother, who was alone during the flight, was very thankful.

“Many people think that what I did was a heroic act. But I only did what a nurse should do when they are in a situation like this,” he said.

Mendoza just returned home after working as a nurse in Ireland for a year.

A nursing graduate from the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, he said he really wanted to be a nurse growing up. “This is my calling, this is what I want,” Mendoza said. – Rappler.com 

 

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