THE woman who held a two-month-old baby girl in her arms as she took “her last dying breath” onboard an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth has described the heartbreaking efforts to save the infant.
Farah, from Saudi Arabia, was restless and crying at the start of the flight, so former nurse Nadia Parenzee offered to help because she could see the new parents were stressed.
Later, as Ms Parenzee was closing her eyes to sleep, a flight attended tapped her on the shoulder to ask for help.
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READ NOW“The parents offered the baby to me with desperation in their eyes,” she wrote on social media.
“Then baby Farah 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 onboard.”
Doctors performed CPR for two and a half hours before the baby died.
Mr Parenzee described the next two-and-a-half hours as chaos, with resuscitation attempts continuing until the plane landed at Perth Airport on Monday morning.
“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 … before she passed,” she said.
Ms Parenzee said the family had been planning to start a new life in Australia.
An AirAsia spokesman confirmed the plane was met by police and paramedics when it landed following a “medical emergency”.
“The safety and wellbeing of our guests is always our number one priority, and in accordance with procedure, the flight crew requested medical assistance on landing,” he said.
“Our thoughts are with the infant and family involved.”
Police say the infant’s death is not suspicious but a report will be prepared for the coroner.
The same aircraft, which was scheduled to return to Kuala Lumpur at 6.50am, was delayed by four hours as a result of the death.