Saving a life (literally) on Christmas Day

[Roy Hersh]

My family was flying home today from Michigan with a connection in Chicago on our way back to Seattle. On the second flight, there was an announcement by one of the flight attendant's requesting the assistance of a doctor for an ill passenger. Nobody stood up. They made the announcement again and it was clear that there was something serious going on, in the back of the aircraft. My wife seeing that nobody had come to the fore, dashed to the back of the plane.

There she saw a young boy (14 mos. old) laying across his parent's lap having just finished a major seizure. The flight attendants would not let her near the boy though and asked her to provide proof of a license or certification. Sadly, although the flight attendants were keeping the other passengers away from the area, they were totally unprepared for this type of medical event, which is hard for me to comprehend. Anyway, my wife ran back to our seats and grabbed her license, (she is a trained pediatric nurse practitioner, although she is now in public health administration). By the time they allowed her access, the youngster began having a second seizure and his parents were despondent. She gave him oxygen, removed his clothing and was applying cold compresses to his head and body to reduce his intense temperature which she believed was the cause of the 2nd seizure.

While this was taking place the plane took a new course and quickly descended. The pilot announced that we were heading for an emergency landing in Omaha, Nebraska and that we'd be delayed there for awhile. Meanwhile, my wife did her best to reassure the panic stricken parents that their son would be ok. By the time we landed a few minutes later, the boy had fallen asleep in her arms and seemed to be out of harm's way. There was a triage team on the tarmac and as soon as we hit the ground, they boarded the plane and removed the boy and his folks. We can only pray that he'll fully recover as kids are so resilient.

After a short while, the pilot had to fill out some papers and the plane had a brief mechanical inspection and refueling, we took off again. As my wife walked back up the aisle, my daughter was standing on her seat and looking back at her. I told her that her mom had saved that little boy's life and I was very proud of her. We both gave her big hugs and kisses. Today, she was our hero!

[Tom Archer]

Amazing that the crew would let someone die for want of a piece of paper..

Congratulations!

Tom

[Andy Velebil]

Amazing that the crew would let someone die for want of a piece of paper..

Congratulations!

Tom

Tom you hit the nail on the head. Some times common sense just goes out the window.


Roy,
Pass on my thanks to Dorene, so many people these days just refuse to get involved at all. I'm glad she was there to help.

[David Spriggs]

Wow! What a story! Thank God your wife was there. Hug your family tonight... I know I will.

-Dave-