Woman Collapses Mid-Flight Due To Heart Attack, 4 Doctors Save Her Life

Four doctors worked together to save the life of a woman after she collapsed mid-flight due to a heart attack.

The 59-year-old woman Suman Agarwal collapsed on an IndiGo flight from New Delhi to Patna. 35 minutes into the flight, Agarwal developed chest pain and collapsed on her seat.

The flight crew announced that there was a medical emergency which required doctors and nurses. Four doctors, Dr Abhishek Kumar Sinha, Dr Nikita Shrivastava, Dr Mallikarjun, and Dr Atish responded and volunteered to take control of the medical emergency.

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Woman Collapses Mid-Flight

One of the four medical practitioners, Dr Sinha said, “The passenger was unconscious and in a state of shock, having almost collapsed.”

He added that since the doctors did not have the passenger’s medical history, they had to rule out hypoglycaemia (abnormally low glucose or sugar level). In order to do so, the doctor asked an air hostess to give the patient water dissolved in sugar.

The flight’s “crash cart” had all the essential medicines required for treatment, which allowed the doctor to put the patient on external oxygen and put a cannula.

Dr Shrivastava said that it is difficult to put in a cannula in a hospital in such cases, and “doing it mid-air was even more challenging.”

The woman regained consciousness and her condition was stabilised before the flight landed in Patna.

According to an IndiGo official, “We got a priority landing for the aircraft because of a medical emergency after the pilots informed the Patna air traffic control (ATC)”. The official revealed that the aircraft managed to land almost 25 minutes before the scheduled arrival.

The official said there was an ambulance and team of doctors waiting on the tarmac and the patient was rushed to the Paras-HMRI hospital.

Suman Agarwal’s husband Pramod said that her condition is stable.

Earlier, a similar case took a tragic turn when a woman died of a severe heart attack during a flight when the plane was landing at Islamabad International Airport.

The passenger was travelling from Karachi to Islamabad and when the plane was landing at the airport, she suffered a heart attack and passed away.