So I'm flying home from California last night, and somewhere over the midwest I hear a commotion behind me on the plane. I look back and see a woman collapsed in the aisle with people trying to lift her up into a seat.

Grabbed a pair of gloves and a pocket mask from my carry on and identified myself as an EMT to a flight attendant. I approached a man who was fiddling with a blood pressure cuff from the plane's first aid kit and asked him if he was a doctor. When he said yes, I said "great, I'm an EMT, please let me know how I can assist you." He sheepishly looked at me and said, "I don't really do this kind of medicine. Why don't you take over and let me know how I can help you!" Great.

Doc faded into the background, but as I was taking initial vitals a pediatric nurse practitioner approached and offered to help, but also wanted to follow my lead as she'd not been in the ER or dealt with adults in years. So me, the lowly EMT, was giving directions to the higher medical types. Kind of amusing. Did my assessment and made a report to the pilot, who radioed to the airline’s medical officer for instructions. Pilot and medical officer did not want to divert, and I didn’t argue as she was getting better as time went by.

Anyhow, best guess is the woman had a seizure (when she came to she mentioned something about epilepsy when she was 16). We looked after her until landing when she was removed by paramedics for a ride to the ER.

Morals of the story:

1)Always carry your kit! I was very happy to have gloves when I realized she had lost control of her bladder during the episode.

2)Don’t expect great help in a medical emergency while flying. The nurse’s boyfriend commented that if we had not been there the patient would not have been the only one to soil themselves, as the flight crew seemed totally unprepared for a medical emergency.

3)Contrary to urban legend, I got nothing more than a “thanks” and handshake from the pilot for stepping up and helping. I had always been told they’d give you a free ticket if you treated a fellow passenger (not that this was going through my head when I decided to help, but it sure would have been nice!).