Three quick-acting passengers — a doctor, policeman, and pharmacist — saved a man who suffered a heart attack on an airplane with the aid of resuscitation equipment and drugs.
The plane was flying through some of the most remote airspace in the world when the man had a heart attack, followed by cardiac arrest. But passengers and crew members who were trained in basic emergency care kept the man alive until the plane landed and he made a full recovery, according to a report of the incident published in the British Medical Journal.
The emergency reveals the importance of training laypeople in basic resuscitation, and of keeping an automatic external defibrillator (AED) on board flights, said Dave Monks, M.D., co-author of the article and one of the passengers who came to the man's aid,
Science Daily reports.
"This guy was extremely fortunate to have this team there," the doctor said.
Dr. Monks was on board the plane from Canada to Hong Kong when the man began having chest pain. He went to speak with the man, then he lost consciousness and had no pulse. With the man still sitting in his seat, Dr. Monks began doing chest compressions and called for help. Two other passengers, a policeman and a pharmacist, answered the call.
"These guys just happened to be on the plane and even with the [basic medical skills] they had, they were able to perform a quite dramatic and sophisticated critical care resuscitation," Dr. Monks told Live Science.
Defibrillators are available on some planes, but not all, Dr. Monks said. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration requires all flights to carry them, but it's not an international mandate.
"In this case, [the device proved] lifesaving for this man," Dr. Monks said.
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