Baby delivered 35k feet in air thanks to doctor on airplane

A Nigerian banker, Toyin Ogundipe, 41, has been delivered of a baby boy mid-air about 35,000 feet above sea level aboard an Air France flight.

It was the last thing he expected on a flight from Paris to New York, but Dr. Sij Hemal was about to get a first-class ticket in a way he never imagined. 

That’s after a passenger on the flight, Toyin Ogundipe found herself in labor 35,000 feet in the air! 

Dr. Hemal is a Wake Forest School of Medicine grad, and is in his second-year as a urology resident at Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute.

He was aboard the flight after attending a wedding. He and another doctor, Susan Shepherd, a pediatrician found themselves getting ready to help deliver a baby. 

Ogundipe went into labor about midway into the flight as the jet flew away from the southern coast of Greenland.

Both doctors suggested Ogundipe be moved to the first-class section.

“My ticket to first class,” said Dr. Hemal with a laugh.

As Ogundipe contractions accelerated the doctors knew they were in for a delivery.

"We're trained to stay calm and think clearly in emergency situations," he said. "I just tried to think ahead to what might go wrong, and come up with a creative solution."

Thirty minutes later Ogundipe gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Jake. 

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