A woman who didn’t know she was pregnant gave birth to a baby boy during a flight to Hawaii.
On Wednesday, April 28th, Lavinia “Lavi” Mounga was traveling from Salt Lake City to Honolulu for a vacation. However, Mounga was in for a lot more than a relaxing getaway when she went into labor mid-flight. Luckily, a doctor from Hawaii and three neonatal intensive care unit nurses from North Kansas City Hospital were on board the nearly seven-hour Delta flight, and all pitched in to deliver baby Raymond.
“We were about halfway through the flight, and we heard someone call out for medical help. I went to see what was going on and see her there holding a baby in her hands, and it’s little,” said nurse Lani Bamfield in a press release.
Bamfield, Dr. Dale Glenn, and the other neonatal nurses tended to Mounga and Raymond for three hours until the plane landed in Honolulu. The two were transported to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.
“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. The great thing about this was the teamwork. Everybody jumped in together, and everyone helped out,” Glenn said in a statement. He is a Hawaii Pacific Health family medicine physician.
Glenn said that the team had to improvise by using shoelaces to tie and cut the umbilical cord and utilized an Apple Watch to monitor Raymond’s heart rate. Two days after the birth, he and the nurses visited the new mother and baby in the hospital for an emotional reunion.
“We all just teared up,” said NICU Nurse Mimi Ho, who also works at North Kansas City Hospital. “She called us family and said we’re all his aunties, and it was so great to see them.”
Raymond was born at just 29 weeks gestation. Therefore, he will need to remain in the NICU. Mounga has been discharged from the hospital.
