SATURDAY NOV. 20, 2010
Scott and I have been so excited, we really did not get much sleep the night before our trip. Gavin got about 8 hours and for that we are thankful! Upon arrival at SFO to catch our flight to Seattle, I noticed lots of tall guys in line for our flight. Turns out it was a local college basketball team flying up to Seattle for a game. Since we had to book our flight late, we could not get seat assignments until this morning and sadly, we could not sit together. I was in row 15 and Scott & Gavin in row 29. We DID however, get seated together for our flight from Seattle to Paris which is key since I'll be conducting a crash course in French for Scott & Gavin on that flight!
The excitement began about 45 minutes into our flight. The flight attendant was near my seat with the beverage cart when another flight attendant set off an emergency alarm in the back of the plane, which beeped the flight attendant near me. I heard her say a passenger in row 28 had collapsed. An announcement was then made over the intercom for any doctors on board to please come to the back of the plane (where Scott and Gavin were sitting). A minute later, I asked our flight attendent if anyone had responded and she said only a human pathologist and he did not feel he could be of any help so did not leave his seat. So I went. I found one of the basketball players I had seen earlier that day, laying across 3 seats with the team's trainer hovering over him. He had lost consciousness but was slowly coming to. We placed an oxygen mask over him while the fight attendent called someone on the ground (not sure if she was talking to someone with Delta or 911) and began taking notes. I took a jugular pulse and got 80 but his pulse felt weak to me......hmmmmm, I'm used to taking femoral pulses on dogs and cats who are stressed out because they are at the vet's.......is this normal for a human pulse? I took my own pulse at the same time just to check and yes, his pulse seemed weak. He was sweating profusely and was extremely pale. As he began to come to, I was able to get some key information for the flight attendent to relay to the people on the ground....not taking any drugs, was treated for a viral condition last year, no drinking last night, got enough sleep last night. He told me his heart was racing right before he passed out. He said he was extremely hot which belied the condition of his skin (cold and clammy). I tried to reassure him as best I could. We sat him up slowly. I asked the flight attendent for some orange juice for him. As he began to look a little better, I asked the trainer if anyone on the team had any powdered Gatorade with them. She said no.....what? a basketball team without Gatorade???. I asked the flight attendent if she had any type of drink that contained electrolytes...she thought for a moment, then went back to the galley. She broke into some of the first class snack packs that contained the type of "Emergen-C" packets containing electrolytes. We dumped these into some bottled water and I told the trainer to push fluids on him as hard as she could. He really didn't want to drink, wanted to rest, and it was hard taking off the oxygen mask each time to make him drink.
I then went to the next row back (Scott & Gavin's row) where Gavin was happily enjoying the broken-into 1st class snack packs the flight attendent had given to him. Our flight continued uneventfully into Seattle. I was happy for the basketball player and Scott was very happy about my intervention, stating "At least we didn't have to stop in Portland and miss our connection." When we landed, our plane was immediately escorted into the gate closest to the terminal. Scott's comment; "Great, we don't have to wait in line with the other planes." Everyone had to stay seated until the ambulance removed the player, his coach and trainer. As I was waiting for Scott and Gavin to disembark, I saw the player with the paramedics. They had a pulse-ox on his finger and were taking to him. A few minutes later, they released him and he walked away with his team. Huh?!? I sure hope he goes to an ER in Seattle for a quick ECG & bloodwork before playing in his game (at least that's what I'd do if he were a dog)!
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