by Kevin Burton
Chances are you’ve heard this story by now, of a baby being born mid-air on a Portland, Oregon-bound flight April 24.
Page 7 is hardly a breaking news outlet, so I’m guessing you’ve read about it somewhere.
But here’s my question: Did Delta Airlines try to charge the mother for another ticket? I mean, feel-good stories are great, but nothing comes for free.
I’m sort of kidding but sort of not. Had Delta tried to do that, indignation on social media would have been, uh, sky high (sorry!). We would have heard about that one, right?
But isn’t that the way of the world? The way of corporations corporating all over the heads of common folk, such as you, such as me, such as Ashley Blair?
Blair was two weeks shy of her due date and headed home to Oregon, when she went into labor on Delta flight 478 from Atlanta to Portland.
The adventure began with an announcement over the intercom by a flight attendant asking for any emergency medical personnel on board the plane to please ring their service bell, according to an account from KOIN TV-6 Portland.
“Then the steward came up to us and he goes, ‘Hey, we have a lady up front who thinks she’s going into labor. Contractions are about three minutes apart. Can you guys check her out?’” said Tina Fritz, one of two EMTs who happened to be on the flight.
Fritz and fellow EMT Caarin Powell were returning to Portland from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.
They went up the aisle and immediately knew this baby was coming sooner rather than later.
“I asked for an OB kit, which they did not have. I asked for blankets, which they did not have,” Fritz said.
“So I was like, okay, we need to get blankets from passengers. I need some shoestrings. So the flight attendant took his shoestring out, cut it for us,” Fritz said.
They had to improvise with what they could borrow, using the shoestring as a tourniquet to start an IV on the patient. Fritz said the mother-to-be was great throughout the ordeal.
“She’s like, ‘I gotta push, I gotta push.’ And within three really good pushes, the baby was out and doing perfect. Mom was a rock star, like, mom did so good,” Fritz said. “I cut the cord and we wrapped her up, and they’re like, the plane is touching down, so Kaarin grabbed the seat. And I grabbed the seat. We didn’t get anything buckled, and we just landed. Then, we gave baby back to mom, and we taxied in.”
“The whole plane cheered for mom. It was great,” Fritz said.
A baby crying on an airplane is usually not cause for cheering, but this was different.
The accounts I read didn’t say, but I’m going to guess this was not Blair’s first baby. Also, wouldn’t you love to know if Blair had a window seat, aisle seat, or the dreaded middle?
Baby Brielle Renee arrived about 30 minutes before the plane landed in Portland. We later found out that the baby girl was born at weighing 5 lbs. 8 oz. Fritz was able to share those facts on Facebook because she and Blair had become fast friends and are keeping in touch.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, actually,” Fritz said. “We’re friends now forever.”
The first accounts of this story that I saw did not include the gender of the child, or the name. So without that information I prematurely offered up possible names, Aaron/Ariel, Skyler/Skyla. Turns out they didn’t need help from me.
A Port of Portland communications spokesperson told the AP that a Portland Airport Fire And Rescue crew found Blair and her baby in healthy condition on the ground and moved them to a hospital for observation.
Page 7 