Miami, FL,
11
August
2021
|
14:00 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

July 2021 Employee of the Month: Newborn named Mia after emergency airport arrival

After a team of MIA employees helped a pregnant traveler unexpectedly deliver her baby girl in one of the airport’s restrooms, the new mom had the perfect name for her newborn: Mia.

The woman had just arrived at MIA on a flight from Chicago when she felt the need to go to the restroom. Soon after, she was having labor pains. American Airlines employee Wanda Mendez happened to be in the bathroom at the same time and heard the woman crying in the bathroom stall. Once she figured out what was happening, she found Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) Safety and Security Specialist Amelia Velazquez nearby and asked for assistance. When Velazquez and Mendez managed to open the closed restroom stall door, they found the woman with the baby girl she had just delivered! They quickly cleaned the baby, wrapped it in a blanket, and helped to calm down the nervous new mom. They called additional staff from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR), the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), and MDAD to help provide first-aid and other assistance to the new mom and baby, who are both healthy and doing well.

For all their efforts in the successful emergency “landing” of Baby Mia, the following team of airport employees joined Velazquez and Mendez in being named MIA’s July 2021 Employees of the Month: MDAD Senior Agent Pamela Coney; MDAD Specialist Yamileysi Martinez; MDAD Specialist Heylin Peralta; MDPD Officer Steve Kauffman; and MDPD Officer Christopher Cuccaro.