A new mom who unexpectedly went into labor during a Delta international flight will arrive back home in California on Thursday, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported.
Katherine Oyedoh was flying from Ghana to Atlanta when she began having contractions at 36,000 feet. She was due to give birth April 13 but had clearance from her doctor for the March 23 flight.
Flight attendants were alerted about a yelling woman and soon learned that the passenger was having a baby.
"I saw her and just the way she was leaned over and moaning, I just knew," Susan Carnes, a veteran Delta flight attendant, said. "I said, do you feel like your water has broken and she said 'Yes,' and that's when I knew, OK we're having a baby."
Carnes asked passengers if there was a doctor on board, and Dr. Patrick Ojukwu, an OB/GYN from Stockbridge, Georgia, offered his assistance.
Carnes began directing other flight attendants to get supplies like gloves, paper towels and hot towels from business class. She grabbed her galley gear bag and the scissors she had inside.
Then passengers started offering their help when they needed something to tie off the umbilical cord.
"We couldn't find any twine or string or anything, and this passenger across the aisle offered his shoe strings," Susan said.
Another passenger timed the contractions on his watch. Two other passengers who had medical training monitored the new mom's blood pressure.
One of the flight attendants grabbed a styrofoam Delta cup and filled it with vodka to sterilize the shoelaces and scissors.
"And then the doctors said, 'here comes the baby.' Baby comes out and the doctor hands him to me."
Susan placed the tiny new passenger, named Ebosalume, on his mom's chest, and then she bundled him up. The other flight attendants had made a makeshift bassinet out of newspapers and thick paper towels.
"I took the baby to hand it over and I lifted him across the seats. And as I did, I noticed everyone was looking at me, and I just raised it up and said, 'it's a boy!' And the whole airplane broke out into applause and laughter."
Fifteen minutes later, the plane was on the ground, diverted to Dakar, Senegal. Mom and baby were taken to the hospital.
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Newscore contributed to this report.
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