It was a flight for the memory banks, for sure. When Balvinder Singh Ahuja from Brampton, Ont., was on his way back to Canada after visiting family in India, the last thing he expected was to find himself donning the metaphorical hospital greens.
While flying over Kazakhstan, the Air India crew made the 'Is there a doctor on board?' announcement. By happy coincidence, there was.
"So I went back and saw this lady laying on the floor — and her husband was sitting there — and she was quite in pain and these air hostesses said, 'She's pregnant and she's in labour,'" says Dr Ahuja, who was a pediatric doctor in India before coming to Canada.
The doctor, who isn't experienced at delivering babies, "improvised", using Scotch to sterilize the scissors and a microwaved blanket to warm the baby.
"I needed something to clamp the cord at the maternal site. So for that, one of the air hostesses said she's got a sewing kit. So we took threads from those needles and used those threads to tie the knot," he said.
A baby girl named Aakash -- which aptly means 'sky' in Hindi -- was born 45 minutes later, at 11,000 metres, weighing a healthy seven pounds.
Mom and babe were upgraded to first class immediately following delivery, and rushed to hospital in Toronto upon landing, about nine hours later. They are said to be thriving.
Like many foreign-trained doctors, Ahuja isn't licensed to practice medicine in Canada, and would need to be re-certified. Still, he claims the delivery was the highlight of his 25-year career.
There is no mention that the baby came prematurely. A very good reason for not flying past 36 weeks' pregnant!
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