Comforting Airline Employee Gets Surprise Thanks

Dec. 23, 2008 — -- What was supposed to be an uneventful holiday trip to visit relatives in California turned into a life-altering experience for Missy Hebert and her fiancé, Rod Reynolds.

The Wisconsin pair had taken a bus to Chicago, only to face delay after delay at the airport on their way to visit family last Christmas. When the two finally were airborne, Hebert, who was 23 weeks pregnant with twins, had a frightening crisis at 35,000 feet.

Click here to tell "Good Morning America" who you'd like to thank.

"I had a really bad backache and stomachache," she said.

"She went to the bathroom and came back and said she was bleeding," Reynolds said. "I was scared more than I'd ever been scared before. The feeling was very helpless being on an airplane 35,000 feet in between, you know, Chicago and Los Angeles."

Hebert was hemorrhaging and thought she might lose her unborn sons.

"I literally got on my knees in the bathroom and prayed to God: 'Please, please don't take my babies from me,'" Hebert said. "It was very surreal. It was like you see in the movies.

"I thought we were so far from L.A. that something bad was going to happen on the plane," she added.

The flight crew made an emergency diversion and landed the plane in Denver so Hebert could get medical help.

"We were all alone in Denver. We knew nobody. We had no family. We were by ourselves and we knew at that point that these babies, they weren't ready. They weren't ready to come yet. It was very scary," Reynolds said.

When Reynolds and Hebert got off the plane, an American Airline customer service agent named Cynthia Comfort was there to greet them and help them out.

"We were the luckiest people in the world because the employee they sent over was Cynthia Comfort. And how funny her last name was Comfort," Hebert said.

Hebert and Reynolds surprised Comfort on "Good Morning America" today to thank her for all her help during their difficult time.

Her customer service went beyond the terminal gates.

Fighting for Her Babies

The doctors who treated Hebert at a local hospital were able to stave off early labor, but the twins and Hebert remained in danger. Two days later -- on Christmas Day -- Hebert received a surprise visitor.

"It's Cynthia Comfort and her husband, Doug, with gifts for me, gifts for my babies that aren't born yet, goodies," Hebert said. "[It was] very sweet."

"They wanted us to have a Christmas and that's what they brought us. It was very moving, very moving," Reynolds said. "It's very reassuring, very reassuring, that there are people in this world today that are willing to go the extra mile for somebody in need."

But Reynolds and Hebert wouldn't have much time to relax, because just a day later, Hebert went into labor and gave birth to twins, Conor and Donovan.

Babies born at 23 weeks usually don't make it and while Donovan survived, Conor died three days after he was born.

"Conor died in my arms. I held him and kissed him as he went. It was meant to be," a tearful Reynolds said.

At just one pound and four ounces, Donovan was fragile, but a fighter. He was so tiny his grandmother's wedding ring fit around his wrist. But slowly he gained strength.

Hebert calls him her little Christmas miracle.

Eventually, Hebert moved to a nearby Ronald McDonald House for temporary housing and Comfort and her husband would come weekly for four months to see the new mom and baby.

"Cynthia was a lifeline for me. She called me constantly, I mean every day," Hebert said. "She would take me out to lunch. She took me shopping, took me sightseeing."

"She was like a member of our family She was Donovan's angel," Hebert added.

Hebert credits Comfort with helping her get through such a difficult time in her life.

"I don't know if I could've done that for four months without her, without her support and her love and her prayers," she said. "I don't even think 'thank you' is the right words, but 'thank you' is so simple."

Today, Donovan is preparing for his first birthday and has continued developing well. And Reynolds and Hebert credit Comfort for their miracle.

"If everybody in the world was even just a little bit like Cynthia, the world would be a much better place," she said.