Crisis in Midair
It was Tuesday, August 27, 2019 and my daughter and I took an early United Airline flight from New York, JFK bound for Chicago, O’Hare. Every seat on the airplane was taken, so my daughter sat on an aisle seat across from me. Like me, most people fell sound asleep after boarding the flight at the wee hour of 4:30 am. It was 20 minutes before landing when we heard the address.
“We need a doctor! Is there a Physician onboard?”
Every traveler’s nightmare. I looked down over my right shoulder in time to see the back of a lady’s head, she laid, face plastered on the floor, motionless. Someone said, she fell after leaving the restroom. The PA system blared again, “Is there a Physician onboard?” Then I glanced to my right. Just in time to see a young man suddenly pushed past my daughter. He wore a yarmulke (a skullcap worn in public by Orthodox Jewish men). “I’m a Paramedic!” he exclaimed.
Within seconds, he was on both knees, gently tugging at her heavy, denim jacket while asking for assistance to turn the patient supinely. Another traveler assisted and he went to work, astutely, and patiently, revived the patient; within seconds, he was able to triage the situation. He took her wrists. He told her she had a pulse. He tapped her shoulders. “Ma’am, are you having any chest pains?” She shook her head, “No”.
I automatically rehearsed in my brain, “Airways, breathing, circulation,” the emergency ABC before a flight attendant emerged. She handed the Paramedic an emergency kit. He deftly untied the supply kit, took the patient’s blood pressure and was about to start an IV. No IV Pole! We were in a huge airplane, hurling down to a landing position. He glanced in the direction of my daughter(who happened to be a medical student) and she instinctively knew what to do. She grabbed the IV and held it vertically as the Paramedic communicated with the patient. He explained to the patient, she had a syncopal attack and giving her the IV will sustain her until the airplane landed, there is help on the way. She nodded, as hope flooded her being!
A flight attendant appeared with a Clipboard, stacked with forms. She handed it to the Paramedic. “I need to have you fill out these forms.” The plane began its landing. The seat-belt sign switched on. “Please fasten your seat-belts”. This time no mention was made about keeping the isles clear. There was crisis in midair.
The plane landed without further incidence. More help appeared. A flurry of blue and orange-clad men, wheeling a narrow contraption, deftly hoisted the patient onto the stretcher. Until then, the woman’s two grandchildren had been sheltered from the scene by a flight attendant. At the sight of Grandma, strapped in a wheelchair, they burst into uncontrollable sobs. The flight attendant reassured them that Grandma was ok, and they followed after the rescue team. Then it seemed like the rest of us, exhaled in unison, that the woman survived and we clapped with gratitude for a young Paramedic’s gallant efforts as he beamed with pride!