So, it happened again! After a year and a half of not flying the first flight I get on a flight there is a medical emergency. As we are boarding the plane I am just about to get to my seat when I hear behind me “sir are you ok ?” “Maybe he is hypoglycemic” I turn my head and two seats behind me is a man in obvious distress. From that point on I forgot about putting my bag in the overhead bin, flung my purse on the chair across from me and pushed passed the people in line to get to this gentleman.
As I reached this elderly gentlemen’s side, I grabbed his wrist to get a pulse and saw that he had fine tremors, while taking his pulse I searched with my other hand to get his ID. As I called his name he made eye contact with me, as if pleading for help, at that point my heart dropped into my stomach. I scanned his face and saw his pallor and discoloration in his tongue and literally yelled out for oxygen, within seconds he started having a seizure. His pulse that was initially rapid became thready, to difficult to find within minutes, we (3 other persons joined me at this time) quickly got him on the floor of the airplane and started resuscitation.
I will not go into the details of the resuscitation but we worked on him for a while knowing that this was someone family and they would be waiting for him at the airport.
This happened several weeks ago and to this day I can not forget how his eyes locked on mine for a brief second. Unfortunately he did not survive but It is my hope that even for a that second he knew that he was not alone.
