Kansas City, MO – A woman found herself quite lucky to have three Kansas City nurses and a physician aboard her flight to Hawaii.
Lavinia “Lavi” Mounga unexpectedly delivered her baby, Raymond, on a Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu on April 28. Aboard the plane: three NICU nurses from North Kansas City Hospital, and a physician from Hawaii.
The NKC Hospital nurses Lani Bamfield, Amanda Beeding and Mimi Ho; along with Dr. Dale Glenn of Hawaii; all stood up and responded when the call for help went out about halfway through the flight.
The impromptu medical team used a couple of shoelaces to tie off and cut through the umbilical cord, microwaved some water bottles to make baby warmers, and used an Apple Watch to measure the baby’s heart rate.
“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,” says Dr. Glenn, who is pictured at left with new mom Lavi Mounga. “The great thing about this was the teamwork. Everybody jumped in together and everyone helped out.
“Basically, you need somebody to watch the mom too because we have two patients, not just one. So someone’s got to help cut the cord, someone’s got to help deliver the placenta, we’ve got to check vital signs on mom. Meanwhile we’re trying to resuscitate baby, make sure baby’s breathing, get baby warmed up. That’s a lot of work to do, and we’re all trying to work in a very small, confined space in an airplane, which is pretty challenging. But the teamwork was great.”
After Mounga and baby Raymond made it to the hospital, the nurses and doctor went to visit her a couple days later.
“We all just teared up. She called us family and said we’re all his aunties, and it was so great to see them,” said Ho.
And mom was so thankful for their help.
“It has been very overwhelming, and I’m just so lucky that there were three NICU nurses and a doctor on the plane to help me, and help stabilize him and make sure he was ok for the duration of the flight,” said Mounga.