NEW DELHI: A group of doctors turned out to be angels for a toddler who stopped breathing after suffering a heart attack mid-air on a flight en route to Delhi. The incident was reported on Sunday evening on Flight number UK-814 of Vistara Airlines.
Shortly after take-off from Bengaluru, an announcement was made by the crew before the aircraft was diverted to Nagpur. The distress call was about a two-year-old cyanotic (congenital heart condition) female child who wasn’t breathing.
A group of five doctors from AIIMS-Delhi was also on board. They were returning from a conference. The child was returning to Delhi after heart surgery. The child was immediately examined. The doctors said her pulse and heartbeat were missing, her hands and feet were cold, and the child was not able to breathe. The Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) started right there. “We were lucky to have trained a cardiologist and radiologist in our team. After initial assessment, we took the child and her mother at the back of the aircraft and drew a curtain so that panic does not ensue in the plane,” a doctor said.
The doctors said that the biggest challenge was to provide treatment within the limited resources of the aeroplane’s first-aid box. “All the doctors took separate responsibilities. We used the aircraft’s oxygen mask to open airways and used equipment from the first-aid box to install canulla to provide emergency medicine. Meanwhile, CPR was given constantly to revive her heart,” the doctors said.
One of the doctors said the child had undergone open intracardiac repair surgery in Bengaluru three weeks ago for complex congenital heart disease (dextrocardia, situs inversus and total anomalous pulmonary venous connection). The efforts continued for 45 minutes and finally, the child started breathing. However, the trouble was far from over. The child suffered another heart attack and the whole procedure was done again.
Sensing the critical condition, the doctors requested the captain to detour the flight to the nearest airport. Meanwhile, an AED device, which was available onboard, was used to give her shock. The repeated attempts returned her heartbeat. The child was then shifted to a hospital after the flight landed. She underwent surgery and is reported to be in a stable condition now.
Distress call & revival
Sunday, 9 pm: A Bengaluru-Delhi Vistara flight takes off. Minutes later, a distress announcement was made to seek help from any doctor available on board. A group of five doctors from AIIMS-Delhi was onboard. They used the aircraft’s oxygen mask to open airways and used equipment from the first-aid box to install canulla.
Kid back to life
Around 10 pm: The exercise was complicated by another cardiac arrest for which an AED (automated external defibrillator) was used, and the child was finally resuscitated, said a doctor. An AIIMS social media post identified the following doctors: Dr Navdeep Kaur, Dr Damandeep Singh, Dr Rishab Jain, Dr Oishika and Dr Avichala Taxak.