90.7 WMFE

A central Florida doctor helped deliver a baby…on a plane. The doctor called it an “exciting and emotional” experience.

Bhasker Patel practices internal medicine at Health First. He was on a Southwest flight Sunday evening from Philadelphia to Orlando when a passenger went into labor. Dr. Patel said about an hour and fifteen minutes into the flight attendants asked for any medical personnel on board to come to the front of the aircraft. He said two others, including an ER physician, also helped with the delivery of a premature baby.

“You can call it a divine intervention or just a chance occurrence, or whatever, but it’s hard to explain why somebody is there at a particular moment and what skill sets that you possess that would be required at that point in time,” said Dr. Patel.

Patel said the mother thanked everyone and apologized to passengers for delaying their flight—which made an emergency landing in Charleston, South Carolina.