4 docs save co-flyer after mid-air heart attack

THE WOMAN DEVELOPED CHEST PAIN AROUND 35 MINUTES AFTER TAKE-OFF AND FELL UNCONSCIOUS

PATNA: A 59-year-old woman who collapsed after a heart attack mid-air on an IndiGo airlines aircraft on Saturday evening was resuscitated by four doctors on board and was later shifted to a hospital where she is in a stable condition, said an airline official on Sunday.

The incident took place on IndiGo flight 6E 695 that took off from Delhi at 6pm en-route to Patna on Saturday. The woman,

Suman Agarwal, developed chest pain around 35 minutes after take-off and fell unconscious, her husband Pramod Agarwal said.

“The flight crew made an announcement calling out doctors or nurses on board. Four of them — three men and a woman — took control of the situation as they worked with the IndiGo crew to save my wife,” he said.

One of the doctors, Dr Abhishek Kumar Sinha, said: “The passenger was unconscious... Since we did not have her medical history, so, to rule out hypoglycaemia (low glucose or sugar level), I asked an airhostess to give her water, dissolved with sugar,” he said. Another doctor, Dr Nikita Shrivastava, who helped, said: “I put her on external oxygen and was able to put a cannula, which is difficult to do even in a hospital in such cases.” She added that once the line was set up, the team administered several lifesaving drugs. “The woman soon regained consciousness,” she said. Dr Mallikarjun from New Delhi and Dr Atish, a paediatrician from the army hospital, were the other two doctors who helped save the woman.

“We got a priority landing for the aircraft due to medical emergency,” said the airline official.