Photos: Doctor on holiday helps deliver baby on plane

'I was worried something might go wrong. [But] everything went smoothly'

A doctor is always on duty, at least this Ukrainian ENT specialist who was flying to Bangkok for holiday but helped deliver a baby mid-flight! 
Alena Fedchenko was flying for a holiday on Tuesday night when the crew announced they were urgently looking for a doctor. Fedchenko knew she there was an emergency onboard the flight and rushed to help.
The crew led the doctor-on-holiday into the flight attendants' room where a pregnant woman was in labour. "I was worried something might go wrong. [But] everything went smoothly," Fedchenko was quoted as saying in BBC.
She told the Thai mother's delivery was quick and without any complications. "I cut the umbilical cord. The placenta went away," recalled Fedchenko, a graduate of Kyiv's medical university, where the basics of obstetrics and gynaecology is a must for all doctors.

"In a split second, I remembered everything I had once learned. Not a single muscle was trembling. I just simply started doing what I had to do. I put on gloves and prepared the woman. The baby was about to come out. It was the second stage of labour," Fedchenko added.
Adding that the baby was not premature and appeared to be healthy, the doctor said, "The woman did not yell at all. I kept telling her everything would be all right, that I was a doctor and she was in safe hands."
The pilot later announced that a baby boy was just born and the plane was diverted to Kolkata in India, where the mother and the baby were taken to hospital.
While the doctor, whose final holiday destination was Vietnam, was offered business-class and champagne and fruits.

• MENA