Photo: Tech. Sgt. Zachary Boyer/U.S. Air Force
General Tod D. Wolters, the commander of U.S. European Command, said that the infant is in good health after the inflight delivery, in addition to two other babies of Afghan refugees that were born at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. “All three babies are good,” Wolters said Wednesday in apress conference.
“So that that child’s name will forever be Reach,” he continued. “And if you can well imagine being an Air Force fighter pilot, it’s my dream to watch that young child called Reach grow up and be a U.S. citizen and fly United States Air Force fighters in our Air Force. Over.”
The unnamed motherboarded the C-17 cargo planewith her husband and their other young child last Saturday, before meeting an aeromedical staging squadron at a base in the Middle East and moving on to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, PEOPLE confirmed.
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She went into labor mid-flight, experiencing increasingly heavy contractions. The woman progressed into high labor and her blood pressure dropped dangerously low as the plane approached Germany, causing medical complications. The aircraft’s commander took action, increasing the air pressure and decreasing altitude, which managed to “stabilize and help save the mother’s life,” according to a U.S. Air Force rep.
When the aircraft touched down at Ramstein, the woman went into the final stages of labor. The 86th Medical Group rushed aboard and escorted her to a makeshift delivery room in the cargo bay, where they facilitated the successful birth.
The extraordinary birth took place amid turmoil for many Afghans after the Taliban seized control of Kabul and other cities this month, following PresidentJoe Biden’swithdrawal of U.S. military troopsfrom the country.
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Afghans subsequently descended into panic, crowding the Kabul airport and scaling concrete walls around the tarmac in an attempt toboard international flights and flee the Taliban’s control. More than 600 peopleevacuated in a single tripon Air Force cargo planes like the one that transported the pregnant woman, much more than the amount of passengers those types of aircrafts are built to hold. Many have rushed half-open ramps and even wheel wells to escape, and somehave fallen to their death in the process.
An Afghan man living in Kabul (who asked to be kept anonymous for fear of reprisal) told PEOPLE of the sense of terror that has taken over the city, threatening his family’s livelihood. “We are afraid to go outside now. Everyone is scared and hiding. Unless you are with the Taliban, itis not safe inside Afghanistan,” the man said.
“I myself, and people in my family, we worked with the Afghan government. We were government workers. Now we are unemployed. I have no income. I have to live off of what money I already have,” he continued. “Our family wants to go to America. We thought we had more time.”
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
As of Wednesday, the U.S.has helped evacuated about 82,300 people, according to White House spokesman Chris Meagher.
source: people.com
