AP
Sunday 3rd August, 2008 Posted: 12:24 CIT (17:24 GMT) > Comment on this story
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – A baby who was born on an American Airlines flight en route to Miami died Saturday at a hospital in Jamaica, a Peruvian consulate official said.
The boy had weighed 3 lbs. (1.4 kilos), said Paola Byles, an honorary consul to the Peruvian Embassy in Jamaica who helped the Spanish–speaking mother once she arrived. Byles said she did not know the cause of death. It was unclear if the mother, a 19–year–old woman from Ecuador, delivered prematurely.
The mother was released Saturday from Jamaica’s MoBay Hope Medical Center in good health, nurse Margarette Smith said, declining further comment.
The woman apparently did not know she was pregnant and began complaining of stomach cramps when the flight left Guayaquil, Ecuador, on Thursday, said airline spokeswoman Minnette Velez. Employees moved her to first class once they realized she was having a baby, Velez said.
A doctor who was a passenger on the plane delivered the baby with help from a first–aid kit and plenty of water and towels, Velez said. The plane was then rerouted to Montego Bay, Jamaica, where it dropped off mother and child before continuing to Florida, she said.
The baby was taken to the Cornwall Regional Medical Hospital in Jamaica, but officials there refused to comment.
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