In an emergency scenario more from a movie than real life, a local doctor revived a plane passenger who stopped breathing after a cardiac arrest.
Dr. Anthony Aenlle, the medical director at the Clarkston Clinic, responded to an emergency call nearly five hours into his Sept. 11 flight back from vacation in South Africa.
Aenlle said a man on the plane suffered a cardiac arrest causing his heart and breathing to stop. Using the defibrillator onboard twice, Aenlle was able to restart the man’s heart and breathing, but had to monitor his blood pressure constantly.
‘It’s happened in the E.R. before, but it’s different on a plane. Usually you have nurses and things; it’s not quite as organized on a plane and you don’t know what meds are available,? said Aenlle. ‘I just reassured him everything was going okay, he must have been scare.?
Working within the narrow confines of the galley, Aenlle kept track of the man’s blood pressure by pulse due to the thunderous noise of the plane’s engines.
Relying on his 25 years of experience at the clinic and five years of emergency room work, Aenlle took the lead over a makeshift crew of four or five other passengers with medical backgrounds who assisted in treating the man.
Aenlle credited medicines provided by another passenger with a heart condition as being key to keeping the man alive. Some of those very same medicines would be available in the emergency room, Aenlle said.
The plane, which left from Johannesburg had flown just past Africa over the Atlantic Ocean and had to be diverted to Ghana, said Aenlle, who keep the pilot up to date on the passenger’s condition.
‘I spoke with the pilot and we had to turn around. Ghana was the closest place with a cardiac unit,? said Aenlle.
Aenlle estimated the flight to Ghana after the man’s cardiac arrest took about an hour and a half through which the man’s blood pressure was constantly monitored.
‘It was a scary thing taking his blood pressure and watching if he’d go back into arrest,? said Aenlle, who spent roughly two hours monitoring the man’s blood pressure and giving him medicine.
Relief came for Aenlle and the other passengers on the flight after landing and handing the man off for transport to a hospital in Ghana.
‘A passenger said, ‘You saved his life,? and it felt good,? said Aenlle, who also received a bottle of champagne from a stewardess.
Upon arriving home, Aenlle had no knowledge of the man’s condition or name and only knew he was an African American male from Chicago in his late 50’s and alive when removed from the plane.
Unfortunately, despite the efforts of Dr. Aenlle and other passengers, the man passed away sometime after being unloaded from the plane on the way to the hospital, according an official from South African Airways. The official would not provide any further details and only confirmed that a man on Dr. Aenlle’s flight 209 died following the ordeal.