'She took her last breath in my arms': Woman's tragic post after baby dies on flight
A woman who held the infant who died on a flight from Malaysia to Perth has told of the moment she felt the child’s body go “limp” and the “chaotic” two-and-a-half hours that followed.
In a heart-wrenching post on Facebook following Monday morning’s tragic AirAsia flight, Nadia Parenzee described the experience as the “most confronting situation one could possibly go through”.
She explained the child’s parents, from Saudi Arabia, were stressed while dealing with their “restless” child who was crying continuously.
“At the start of the flight the baby was really restless and cried continuously. I offered the parents and the staff some assistance as I could see that the new parents were stressed,” Ms Parenzee wrote.
“As I closed my eyes to catch some sleep the AirAsia hostess tapped me on the shoulder to help her.”
She said with “desperation” in their eyes, the child’s parents offered their baby to her - she accepted and proceeded to read a prayer from the Quran.
Shortly after, however, the baby “took her last breath and went limp”.
“I immediately knew something was horribly wrong and shouted out to the passengers to see if there were any doctors on board,” the woman wrote.
That’s when two-and-a-half hours of “chaos” began, with resuscitation being performed on the child until the flight landed.
“My heart is numb and I don’t know how to feel but I am honestly honoured to have held her and read a prayer on her before she passed,” Ms Parenzee wrote.
“To the unbelievable staff of AirAsia you were amazing and I commend your professionalism.”
Western Australia Police confirmed the death of a child on the flight, stating that at “around 5.50am Monday, 22 April 2019, Police were advised of a two-month-old baby girl (passenger) being deceased on the arrival of a flight from Kuala Lumpur.”
“Police are treating this as a non-suspicious death and a report will be prepared for the Coroner.”
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