NADIA Parenzee who was a passenger on board an AirAsia flight this morning said the two-month-old infant who died en route to Perth from Kuala Lumpur was crying a lot.
In a news report by Australia's ABC, Parenzee said she offered to help the baby's parents.
She claimed that she held the two-month-old and observed that the baby was grey in colour and was struggling to breathe.
Praising AirAsia's staff who dealt with the situation really well, Parenzee remarked that what happened was not an easy thing to go through.
"The parents were just genuinely beside themselves. I was trying to reassure them," Parenzee was quoted as saying of the infant's parents who were from Saudi.
Parenzee, a former nurse, also said the parents took their child to a doctor a week ago for a cold.
She also said the infant's father told her their family was moving to Australia as he would be doing his PhD there and for them to start a new life.
Describing the situation on board as being chaotic, Parenzee said doctors started CPR on the baby she called Farah.
"I had known when I looked at the baby's pupils and they did the light test that the baby had passed," she said, adding that she also spoke to the pilot about making an emergency landing.
The pilot then informed that they were two and a half hours away from Perth.
"The pilot said, 'you know, we can go to Jakarta, obviously it's going to take time to get clearance. We're two and a half hours away from Perth.
"I said, 'well, go to Perth if we're going to get medical assistance straight away'," ABC quoted Parenzee as saying.
She informed that doctors continued with their attempts to resuscitate the baby for the next two hours, including when the plane began its descent into Perth International Airport.
AirAsia, in a statement today, confirmed that there was a “medical emergency" involving an infant on flight D7236, which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.05am.
The statement said the plane was met with a team of medical specialists and the Western Australia (WA) Police upon arrival at Perth International Airport.