Scott saved a life on holiday flight

A West Lothian paramedic has been given a top award after his quick thinking saved a woman’s life on an aeroplane.

Scott McKeating, an ambulance paramedic from Bathgate, was a winner at the Brave@ Heart awards ceremony following his response to a medical emergency on board a flight from Tenerife.

Scott was returning home from holiday when a call for medical assistance was announced and he made himself known to the crew.

A passenger had become unwell with high sugar levels and was not responding to her normal dose of insulin.

Without his usual medical equipment, Scott improvised by using the patient’s own blood glucose monitoring kit and identified that the patient was hyperglycaemic and in a serious condition.

By this time a junior doctor had also become involved and they asked for the plane to make an emergency landing.

The woman then went into cardiac arrest and, with no defibrillator on board, Scott and the doctor began manual CPR.

After six minutes the patient’s heart began beating on its own again.

When they landed the doctor asked Scott to conduct the handover of the patient to waiting medical staff in recognition of the leadership he had shown.

Scott who is based at the Scottish Ambulance Service’s Livingston station, said: “As soon as I set eyes on the patient I could see that she was seriously ill.

“When she went into cardiac arrest the doctor and I just went into automatic pilot and started doing CPR on her, something I’ve done several times over almost four years with the service.

“Six minutes of full-on CPR is pretty tiring but we refused to stop until there was a sign of life.

“It wasn’t quite the end to my holiday that I had in my mind but as far as I’m concerned it’s what I’ve been trained to do.

“She was my patient and I’m just glad that she survived.”

Pauline Howie, CEO of the Scottish Ambulance Service, said Scott richly deserved the award.

She said: “This must have been a most stressful situation, given the lack of medical equipment to hand and the simple fact of where they were, but Scott’s actions embody the sheer professionalism and dedication of our staff, on or off-duty.

“On behalf of our board, our executive and staff members I would like to thank Scott for his life-saving action as well as leadership in a critical situation. He is a tribute to the service.”

After six minutes of manual CPR the woman’s heart began beating on its own