Doctor saves life of a passenger on a Vistara flight
A recent Delhi-Mumbai Vistara flight witnessed a medical emergency when one of the passengers had difficulty breathing, with plummeting vitals. Thankfully, a doctor onboard the flight provided the appropriate treatment and saved the passenger’s life. The plane did not have to divert and landed in Mumbai as per schedule.
On December 17th, Vistara flight UK957 took off at 21:09 from Delhi for its almost two hours journey toward Mumbai. After the initial climb and during the meal service, one of the flight attendants announced a medical emergency on the PA system and inquired if there was a doctor onboard. Thankfully, there was!
According to a report by the news service IANS, a leading gynecologist from Mumbai, Niranjan Chavan, was traveling on the plane and offered to help. He was taken to the affected passenger, who was struggling to breathe, had his eyes rolled up, and was slumped on his seat motionless.
Chavan told the IANS, “I checked his pulse, but couldn’t feel, and then I tried to confirm it on my smartwatch when I got a feeble reading of around 96. His blood pressure had plummeted alarmingly. He had hypotension with cold clammy hands. All not very good signs given the circumstances mid-air.”
The doctor quickly jumped into action and called for oxygen and some sugar powder, which was given to the patient. He was also given some fruit juice. Meanwhile, the doctor kept massaging the passenger’s hand, so his blood flow could increase, and body temperature could normalize.
The treatment worked as after about 45 minutes, the passenger’s blood pressure improved, and he looked better overall. Chavan sat beside the passenger through the rest of the flight and also completed the airline and medical formalities in such cases before leaving the aircraft.
The doctor also praised the Vistara crew for handling the situation and added, “It was a nerve-wracking incident, my first in over three decades of flying all over, but it was a big learning experience for me treating a critical passenger mid-air like this.”
The passenger was finally taken to the medical facility at Mumbai Airport, where he was kept under observation.
Medical emergencies on flights, although uncommon, do happen from time to time. Depending upon the severity of the situation, there are various protocols in place for such cases.
According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the most common types of emergencies on a flight are nausea, fainting, and respiratory problems
Airlines need to have procedures in place to deal with such situations, and cabin crew members are trained to administer first aid and have some basic resources onboard, such as bandages and cold packs.
But they are not a replacement for a doctor, which is why depending upon the situation, they have to take a quick call on whether to divert a flight or treat the affected passenger onboard.
