NEWS

Palm Bay doctor delivers baby on Southwest Airlines flight

Tim Shortt
FLORIDA TODAY

A Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency stop in Charleston, South Carolina on its way from Philadelphia to Orlando on Sunday when a woman on board went into labor and delivered a baby

Thankfully for her and her new child, Dr. Bhasker Patel of Palm Bay was on the flight coming home from vacation and helped safely deliver the baby on the plane before mother and child were taken to a nearby hospital.

"There are certain things where you don't know why it happens... it was meant to be where I was just going to be on this flight and I was happy that I could be of help," Patel said.

An ER physician who was on the flight to attend a conference in Orlando did the honors of cutting the cord, Patel said.

Patel practices internal medicine at Health First's Palm Bay Hospital.

“Emergency medical technicians met the flight upon landing and transported the parents and baby to an area hospital,'' airline spokeswoman Melissa Ford said.

Flight 556 left Philadelphia just before 3 p.m. ET Sunday. But, after the woman went into labor, the plane diverted to Charleston, where it landed at 4:30 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware.

The flight’s remaining 132 passengers stayed on board and Flight 556 took off from Charleston about 70 minutes after landing. Flight 556 made it to Orlando at 6:34 p.m. ET – about an hour behind schedule.

One passenger on the flight tweeted from onboard, sharing a short, six-second video in which a baby could be heard crying at the front of the plane.

"Flight crew did a great job," the passenger – identified on Twitter as Izzy Gould – said in the tweet.