A baby stopped breathing on a Spirit flight to Orlando. Then a passenger stepped forward
An Orlando-bound Spirit Airlines flight experienced turbulence of a different nature last Thursday evening.
A baby stopped breathing mid-air on Flight 1691 from Pittsburgh and crew members announced the need for help.
FOX 35 meteorologist Ian Cassette was on board and witnessed the drama unfold.
Cassette said a passenger, who also happened to be a retired nurse, raised a hand to volunteer after an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking for a doctor.
Tamara Panzino, who was on vacation, told WESH that she was just relaxing when she heard the crew’s call for help.
“I was reading my book, not paying attention, had my ear buds in, and I heard a flight attendant say, ‘We have an infant not breathing,’” the traveler told the outlet.
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Panzino then said she ran to the back of the plane to attend to the 3-month-old girl named Anjele, who was seated with her parents.
“I had no idea whether the baby was choking [or] if the airway was clear, and I did not know what I was dealing with,” Panzino said. “I saw an infant ... the head back, blue lips and her skin turning blue, clearly in distress and not breathing. And my heart just dropped.”
Panzino was able to resuscitate the infant by rubbing and shaking her chest.
“Within a few minutes, the baby was home free, the color came back, I heard breathing sounds, and I heard a heartbeat,” she said. “Oh my gosh, total relief.”
It is unclear what caused the little one to stop breathing.
Cassette’s tweet shows the happy aftermath: the father holding the girl, all dressed in pink, in the air in the front of the plane, as passengers clap and cheer.
“We thank our crew and guest for the quick response,” Spirit said in a statement. “Our flight attendants are trained to respond to medical emergencies onboard and utilize several resources, including communicating with our designated on-call medical professionals on the ground, using onboard medical kits, and receiving assistance from credentialed medical professionals traveling on the flight.”
