Have you ever been on a flight where the flight attendant asks the passengers if there are medical professionals on board? And then the doctor walks toward That Seat with That Passenger who is Very Ill? Well, this happened on both flights during my recent trip to CA.
On the way there, a guy, whom I overheard telling someone about his Chiropractor practice, responded to the flight attendant's request. No offense to chiros, but if I was having a heart attack on a flight, I would want you to step aside and make room for the cardiologist.
On the return flight, the same announcement was made, but this time it just so happened that the Very Ill Passenger was me. After a glass of wine, two episodes of Friday Night Lights, and a mini meal snack box, I decided to take a nap. As soon as I woke up, I felt incredibly lightheaded and began to black out. I turned to my neighbor and informed him of this development, and he immediately went to get a flight attendant. Suddenly everything went down, the announcement was made, and within a couple of minutes, an oxygen mask appeared on my face, a kind silver-haired ER doc was taking my pulse, and the flight attendants situated me on the floor of row 16, seats A-C (exit row) with my legs elevated and stretched across the aisle to seats D-F. Poor guy in 16D had my feet in his face. I hope they didn't smell! And good thing my dad used his million mile status to get me an exit row seat otherwise I would have had to lay in the aisle and block the snack cart.
In any case, it was a simple vasovagal episode, aka fainting, which I've experienced twice before in my life. Once after general anesthesia for a cardiac ablation in March 2003 and once at the Tuolomne Meadows campground at Yosemite National Park (elev 8,600ft) in September 2004.
Looking back, I would have thought I would be utterly mortified, but I wasn't. People were pretty good about not staring at me too much, and I got free snacks, 2 glasses of OJ and luggage service off the plane. And it feels nice to know that the flight attendants were ready to ask the pilots to land the plane asap if my situation were more serious. Not too shabby for United Airlines.
5 comments:
Oh my goodness, I'm glad you're okay. So there's not a medical professional on board at all times? It's just up to luck? Hmm, THAT'S why my grandma is always telling me to marry a doctor.
Good to hear you're okay! It's always so comforting to know that in true emergencies, the kindness of strangers will come through for you.
Wow, that's scary. Don't forget to call your cardiologist right away to let him/her know what happened. If you have had an ablation (me too!) than I'm guessing you have a chronic heart condition that might have been aggrevated by the airline flight.
Hope everything is OK!
finding a medical doctor on a flight to boston is like finding a black guy on an NBA team. happened on one of my flights back to boston. i just went back to sleep... let me know if the plane is going down and ill check the connectors.
i'm glad you were okay. glad that your doc was an ER MD and not a chiropractor. ;)
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