Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr Amery Browne believes he did what any other Trinbagonian would have done in his shoes when he rendered assistance to a baby on board a flight to Amsterdam on Monday.
“Frankly, I am a little taken aback by the attention that intervention has received. I simply did what many Trinbagonians would do in the circumstances, once we are capable of rendering assistance,” he told Guardian Media yesterday.
“There are many others who do similar things every day and are unheralded. We are generally a generous people and helping others is simply an expression of who we are and how we were raised. At the end of the day, that little baby is doing well and that is what is most important.”
In a post to his Facebook page on Monday, Dr Browne described the incident, saying he had to call “upon some of my old skills to render assistance to a sick baby on a KLM flight from PoS to Amsterdam.”
He said the captain made an announcement asking if there were any doctors on board, following which he volunteered.
“It turns out that I was the only one. The airline had a well-stocked medical kit, and we were able to manage the situation successfully. I implemented a programme of half-hourly checks on the baby during the transatlantic flight, with reporting via the cockpit radio to a KLM specialist in Schiphol Airport,” Browne, who was on his way to the CHOGM meeting in Rwanda, said.
He said the baby was safe in Amsterdam and its mother was smiling and pleased a T&T delegation was on board her flight.
His actions have since garnered praise across social media.
Under Browne’s post, user Ayanna Lewis said: “Very good Amery! Just the fact that you were willing to assist without knowing that you were going to be the only doctor on board is a tremendous thing.”
While there were users trying to cast aspersions, Roshini Maharaj, under CNC3’s Facebook article, defended Browne’s intervention.
“Hindu, Muslim, Christian.....PNM, UNC....thank God someone in the medical field was there to help this child....when I go to the doctor office or hospital I don’t ask if the doctor or nurse is PNM or UNC or what is their religion is....geeze an ages man,” she said.