Plane lands to aid sick baby

Good Samaritan airline passengers clubbed together to help pay for medical treatment for a sick 7-month-old baby after a China Southern Airlines aircraft made an unscheduled stop so the infant could be taken to hospital.

Wang Chen, media officer with China Southern, said the flight, CZ6188 from Beijing to Guiyang, Guizhou Province, landed at Taiyuan, Shanxi Province at 4:26 pm on Saturday, after getting approval from all passengers on board to make the unscheduled landing.

However, on Sunday morning, a crew member from CZ6188 received a call from the infant's parents, telling them the infant, who had acute pneumonia, had died in the early hours of Sunday. He had been treated in the emergency center of Taiyuan Wusu International Airport.

According to Wang, at 4 pm Saturday, the flight's chief steward, Yu Fang, was informed by a female passenger, surnamed Zhou, that her baby had difficulty in breathing, and asked to change seat.

"Yu Fang found that this infant not only breathed with difficulty but also looked very pale. So she used the portable oxygen bottle for the infant, and put out a call for a doctor among the passengers," said Wang.

A passenger on the plane, surnamed Huang, said that 10 minutes after the call for a doctor, a crew member informed passengers that the infant had acute pneumonia, which was so serious that the plane would land, according to the Legal Mirror Sunday.

But after the plane landed in Taiyuan, the child's father, surnamed Zhao, informed Yu that they did not have much cash, and he was afraid that they could not pay for the baby's treatment.

"Then the crew members called on all the passengers to donate to the child. The total donation amounted to 17,435 yuan ($2,794)," said Wang, who added that on Sunday, the parents admitted that their baby was ill before they boarded the flight.

"The child was treated at Beijing Children's Hospital but the doctor told his parents he had a severe lung infection and it's impossible to cure," said she.

The parents felt desperate and their money has mostly been spent, so they did not tell the flight crew about the dangerous situation of the child, noted Wang.

The flight arrived at Guiyang at 8:30 pm, two and half hours later than scheduled.