US soldier watches the birth of his daughter on FaceTime after his flight was delayed
'Don’t let him board the flight! She’s here!'
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An American soldier watched his wife give birth to their daughter over FaceTime after his flight was delayed.
Brooks Lindsey, from Mississippi, US, was attempting to travel home on Saturday after he was alerted that his wife had gone into labour.
However, when his flight was unexpectedly delayed, he became stranded at the airport and had to watch the birth of his daughter, Millie Fritz Anne Lindsey, on FaceTime.
A woman travelling with the soldier from El Paso, Texas, captured an image of him as he watched the birth unfold.
Sharing the photo, which has since been shared more than 111,000 times, on Facebook Tracy Dover wrote: “This Army soldier was on my delayed flight home yesterday to MS. He had to watch the birth of his daughter on FaceTime. He was crying and our hearts were breaking. We all gave him space. When we heard the baby cry, we all rejoiced for him.
“I wanted to share this because I never want us to forget about our soldiers who serve us everyday and the sacrifices they make.”
Lindsey’s wife, Haley, also shared a video of her husband watching the birth online which has since been viewed more than 158,000 times.
Speaking to Love What Matters about the moments that lead up to the arrival of her daughter, Haley explained that she was told the hospital wanted to induce her two weeks early because the baby was under stress.
She then called the Red Cross to ask per military protocol to send her husband home for the birth.
“I called Brooks frantic and he was so excited!” she said.
By Friday at 7am her water broke, just three hours before Lindsey arrived at the airport to board his flight.
Luckily, the soldier’s flight which was scheduled to take off from Dallas at 3.55pm was delayed to 5.45pm.
“Without that delay Brooks would have been in the air and unable to FaceTime!” she explained.
“Brooks was telling me it was okay, and I was doing so good and I heard him wincing and saying 'wow!' through my pushes. I could hear people in the airport talking and cheering!
“Brooks then went on to say that they were making him board and needed to get off as soon as she finally started to crown and all I remember was my Doctor screaming 'Don’t let him board the flight! She’s here! She’s here!' So, the airport personnel let him sit there and watch till it was over.”
The doting father finally arrived in Mississippi at 7pm and immediately made his way to hospital to meet his newborn daughter.
“When he walked in at 7.20 it was just Millie and me. He picked her up and held her for five minutes and kept saying ‘wow I can’t believe we just had a baby’”, Haley recalled.
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