A group of three Filipino nurses successfully helped a pregnant woman delivered a miracle baby on a nine-hour Manila-bound Kuwait Airways flight on Tuesday, August 2, 2022.
According to Sheryl Pascua, a nurse based in the UK, she and her husband, Ruel Pascua, who are both Covid-19 ward frontliners, delivered the baby with the help of another nurse on board who is from the UK as well, Carlos Abungan and the cabin crew of Kuwait Airways.
In a Facebook post, Sheryl of Stoke-on-Trent said that she never thought that it would be the most thrilling yet humbling experience in her nursing career.
She recalled on their connecting flight from Kuwait bound to Manila, some 20 minutes after departure, the cabin crew announced if there were nurses or doctors on board for an emergency situation.
“Little did we know that there was a mother who was about to give birth. Upon assessing the timing and regularities of contraction, I attempted to do an internal examination and only to find out that she was already in the crowning stage,” she recounted.
She shouted for help for other nurses. Her husband Ruel and the other nurse on board Carlos responded to catch the baby while the six-month pregnant mother, who is also a Filipina, was in pain.
While the mother was giving birth, the aircraft was in Iraq’s skies, and an emergency landing in the country was not an option due to restrictions.
“Kasi nagbi-bleed. Worried ako sa BP kasi hindi kompleto facilities ng eroplano,” she told The Global Filipino Magazine.
“During the entire procedure, almost everyone prayed and called for help,” she said.
Sheryl personally prayed for God’s wisdom and knowledge to successfully assist the pregnant mother.
Thankfully, the mother and the baby, despite being premature, survived all throughout the many hours of the journey and landed safely in Manila.
The baby was named Lance Ezekiel, which means ‘God is our strength’.
“Indeed, he is the only source of our strength,” she added.
She said that the premature baby was so tiny that he could fit into her husband’s palm.
