A former Dubai nurse answered to the call of duty when another Filipina on board the same Emirates flight from Dubai to the Philippines suddenly went into labor and gave birth last Saturday, November 21. Fortunately, one of the two Filipino nurses who responded to the situation, Keizel Cruz, did not hesitate and quickly went into action to attend to the situation at hand.
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Ex-Dubai Nurse Helps Deliver Baby Onboard Emirate Flight from Dubai to the Philippines
In an exclusive interview with the Gulf News, Cruz shared that both the mother, Lalaine Edip, and the newborn baby named Sheikah McQueen, were healthy and in stable condition.
The successful delivery took place Saturday afternoon, three hours before an Emirates flight from Dubai was scheduled to land at Clark International Airport (CRK).
Cruz reminisced the fateful incident and said that she had been chatting with some people during the flight when the crew supervisor told her that there was a woman on board who was already in labor and was due to give birth anytime soon.
“Everyone was calm. I knew the crew was trained to deliver babies, but it was also nice to have a medical professional to help in the delivery. So, as a registered nurse and based on my hospital experience, I took the lead and we proceeded with the sterile technique of natural delivery. We successfully delivered Baby Sheikah McQueen two hours before landing, at 1:30 pm (Philippines time),” Cruz shared.
Paying it Forward
It had been more than just a mere coincidence, however, for Keizel and her one-year-old baby, sharing that they were not supposed to be on that flight as they came from New Delhi.
“We decided to take the long route from India to the Philippines via Dubai because there were no direct flights to Manila,” she explained.
She also shared that they had been staying in India for three months for her baby’s liver transplant. Cruz added that the delivery was nothing short of a miracle, as they have experienced one with her own baby’s successful liver transplant before they got onto that Dubai-Clark flight.
Keizel said that her one-year-old baby girl, Jeorgina, had been diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a life-threatening congenital condition that occurs when bile ducts in the liver do not develop normally.
As her baby had to undergo an urgent liver transplant, Cruz, who is a resident of Antipolo had to resign from her work to focus on raising funds for the treatment of her daughter. For her daughter’s procedure, Keizel had to raise at least 3 million pesos (AED 230,000). To gather the funds, Cruz baked banana bread for her daughter’s operation.
Being on the flight, it had been an opportunity for Keizel and her daughter to pay it forward as they, too, had been given another chance at life through the help of other Filipinos who supported them when they were raising funds for her baby’s operation.
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