Doctors Revive 2Yr Old Baby Who Stops Breathing on Flight
AIIMS doctors on Vistara flight perform life-saving CPR and use AED to rescue toddler in distress, hailed as heroes.
A two-year-old toddler had stopped breathing mid-air onboard a Bangalore to Delhi Vistara flight. The incident happened onboard Vistara Airline flight UK-814 on Sunday. The child stopped breathing 30 minutes into the flight. Cabin crew on board then asked if there were doctors to help.
There were five senior doctors traveling in the flight. Their names are:
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Dr Navdeep Kaur (Anesthesia)
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Dr Damandeep Singh (Cardiac Radiology)
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Dr Rishab Jain (Ex SR AIIMS Radiology)
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Dr Oishika (SR OBG)
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Dr Avichala Taxak (SR Cardiac Radiology).
These doctors were from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and were returning to Delhi from the Indian Society for Vascular and Interventional Radiology (ISVIR). The doctors on the flight immediately responded to the distress call and examined the child. They had very limited resources. The child was returning from Bengaluru after undergoing open-heart surgery and found that her “pulse was absent, extremities were cold, and the child was not breathing and her lips and fingers had become bluish-purple." While still in the air, immediate CPR was started on the child with limited resources, using skilled work and active management by the team. Successfully IV cannula was placed, oropharyngeal airway was put and the baby was resuscitated. All this lasted 45 minutes. However she suffered another cardiac arrest. They used an AED which is a portable electronic device that delivers an electric shock through the chest to the heart when it detects an abnormal rhythm, and restores that rhythm to normal. The girl was resuscitated again and when the flight landed at Nagpur she was taken to the hospital for surgery. It was a miracle that the doctors were onboard and saved the girl. They are being hailed as heroes. AIIMS Tweeted about the incident and shared pictures of the girl. Dr Manpreet Kaur, said, “All five were residents-in-training and still they stepped up to save the child's life. This speaks of the quality of training imparted... even though it was a high-stress moment, one that could test even experienced doctors, these five managed to use basic resources and still save the child's life. Most importantly, Do Not Panic. If you are not qualified and someone is helping them... then make space. Doctors attending to a patient don't need people crowding around and taking selfies.”
