Dr. Aisha Khatib was wearing a gold necklace with her first name written in Arabic, and she gifted that to the baby and her mom as a memento of her unique birth story.
A Canadian doctor helped a woman deliver her baby in the most unlikely of places: aboard a Qatar Airways flight 35,000 feet above ground. Dr. Anita Khatib said she had been traveling to Entebbe, Uganda, for a work assignment when, mid-flight, a woman went into labor, and she was called to action.
“I look down and I see this woman lying on the seat with her head towards the aisle and her feet towards the window, and this baby's coming out,” Khatib told Inside Edition Digital. “It was not what I was expecting at all.”
Khatib, who specializes in travel medicine, had been on the overnight flight last month when, about an hour after take-off, she heard a message over the intercom system that explained there was a medical emergency and asked if there was a doctor onboard.
Initially believing a passenger may have suffered a heart attack, she introduced herself to flight attendants and was quickly thrust into action.
“I didn't know anything about the woman. I didn't know anything about the history. I didn't know how we got to this point,” she recalled. “So I pretty much jumped right in.”
Next thing she knew, two other passengers, a pediatric nurse and an oncology nurse, were assisting her.
“I'm thinking, ‘We need clamps. We need scissors. If we don't have clamps, I need shoelaces.’ I'm thinking, ‘I need hot water.’ I'm thinking, ‘Wait, no, I don't need hot water,’ but they always ask for it in the movies,” Khatib said with a laugh. “All these things are kind of going through my head like, ‘What do I need to make sure we can deliver this baby safely?’”
She explained that in these scenarios, many things can go wrong, but before she knew it, the healthy baby was delivered, and minutes later, Khatib determined the mom was also in good condition.
The baby’s mom, a migrant worker from Uganda, had not received any prenatal healthcare and had no idea the baby would be coming so soon, Khatib explained. She had initially believed she was feeling sick before a flight attendant pointed out that she may be in labor.
“After they were stable, we moved them up into the business class area, cleaned them up, had a little bit more space, and were able to get mom latched and breastfeeding and skin-to-skin with baby,” Khatib said. “We monitored her for the rest of the flight, and the baby, and they did well, which was great.”
The mom even ended up naming the baby Miracle Aisha, after the doctor that birthed her on the plane.
“I just happened to have a necklace that had my name on it, which was a little gold necklace said 'Aisha' in Arabic, and so of course I had to give her my namesake, so she remembered the doctor that delivered her up in the air, 35,000 feet, while flying over the Nile,” she said.
Khatib said she and Miracle Aisha’s mom have been in contact since, and she is happy to announce that the pair are still doing well.
