A doctor travelling on an Akasa Air flight faced an expected situation when one of his co-passengers on the flight faced a medical emergency. However, using his medical expertise and quick thinking the doctor saved the life of the passenger. The incident occurred on a flight going from Kochi to Mumbai. The medical professional in the incident has been identified as Dr Cyriac Abby Philips aka The Liver Doc, who shared his story on the micro-blogging site X.com.
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Based on his social media post, a commotion on the flight woke Dr. Philips, who was trying to get some sleep on the late-evening trip. The flight attendants were attempting to use a nebulizer to provide emergency inhalational treatment to a fellow passenger who was having difficulty breathing. The man’s condition did not improve despite their best efforts, and his oxygen saturation level was dangerously low at only 36 percent.
Upon examination, Dr Philips discovered that the man’s left lung was fluid posing a grave danger to his life. “I scroll through his unlocked phone images to see his last prescriptions. Most were for high blood pressure. I checked his blood pressure and found it was 280/160 and he was in accelerated hypertension with drowning lungs. We had 1 hour to land for emergency medical services to attend to him. We had to keep him alive,” Dr Philips said.
We are extremely grateful for your quick response and immediate assistance which was instrumental in saving the life of a fellow passenger onboard our flight QP 1519. Our crew members Dhanya, Zargaam, Arnav, Kiritika in the cabin and Munish & Neha from the flight deck were…
— Akasa Air (@AkasaAir) January 16, 2024
“I have no idea what happened next, but it felt like I was inside an ICU and had to make quick decisions. Mid air, I did a double puncture on his only accessible vein on the right side and further access was lost. The other upper limb had a dialysis fistula made and I could not use it. So I gave him a frusemide injection into his buttock muscles,” he added.
Meanwhile, Akasa Air’s flight crew members helped the assisted doctor by supplying necessary things like oxygen cylinders, and blood pressure medications available on the aircraft.
The man’s blood pressure was brought under control and his oxygen levels improved because of Dr. Philips’ efforts and the crew’s assistance. The patient was taken to a hospital right away after arrival. The man’s family sent words of gratitude to Dr. Philips the next day, and the patient himself called to express his gratitude following his recovery from emergency dialysis.
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The post shared on the X with the details of the incident went viral on social media and got the attention of the Indian airline. Akasa Air expressed gratitude in a post on X, saying “We are extremely grateful for your quick response and immediate assistance which was instrumental in saving the life of a fellow passenger onboard our flight QP 1519.”
The Liver Doc is an influencer on X.com known for his honest health related posts. He was recently banned by X.com over a controversial remark.