28-year-old Brittany Mateiro boarded a flight to Phoenix, Arizona to attend a bachelorette party.
She fell asleep 35,000 feet in the air and woke up on a stretcher in Oklahoma on her way to receive medical care.
As it turned out, Brittany suffered a cardiac arrest and fell from her chair mid-flight. Flight attendants rushed to her seat and found her unresponsive and without a pulse. It was at that moment when it was announced on the flight that a medical emergency was unfolding.
Fortunately, there were cardiologists on board.
Dr. Kashif Chaudhry, a cardiac electrophysiologist at UPMC in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, was also on the same flight as hers. Dr. Naila Shereen, Dr. Chaudhry’s wife and fellow cardiologist, was also on board with them. Together with her husband, they worked to help Brittany and ended up saving her mid-flight.
Dr. Shereen communicated with a hospital on the ground while her husband started chest compressions on Brittany. One of their companions, a fellow doctor, quickly retrieved the plane’s automated external defibrillator.
Due to the quick actions that were taken by the flight crews and passengers including Dr. Chaudhry, Brittany’s heart restarted and she was revived within 90 seconds of starting CPR.
“She had a great pulse. It was an amazing pulse,” Dr. Chaudhry shared in an interview with Today. “She had no idea what was going on, she didn’t know where she was, she was completely disoriented.”
It was certainly an unforgettable moment for the doctors, but much more so for Brittany. Before the medical emergency, the young woman had no history of cardiac arrest and she even exercised about three times a week.
… and with support, we got her back to her seat.
Based on our shared assessment, plane was diverted to nearest airport. By the time plane landed, she was far more oriented. A preliminary EKG by EMS crew was unremarkable. 5/ pic.twitter.com/mzkoCwcJgD
— Kashif N Chaudhry (@KashifMD) March 5, 2022
After the incident, the plane made an emergency landing in Oklahoma City.
Brittany had to undergo further tests to ensure that she was doing better. She was released from the hospital a few hours later.
Her chest was slightly sore due to the compressions but she was fine and this was expected from having been under CPR.
The medical emergency was a wake-up call for Brittany, who now advocates for the importance of learning CPR because it can definitely save lives. Reuniting with Dr. Chaudhry, the two of them are now sharing with the world how much CPR can affect a person’s life.
“Anyone could have done this,” Dr. Chaudhry further shared. “(But) even if we were not on the plane, the outcome should have been the same.”
“It’s so crazy. You always hear about CPR your whole life… but in the back of your head, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m not really ever going to use this,’” Brittany shared. “I just can’t believe that it saved my life.”
Brittany recalled the moment she opened her eyes and found out that she was on a stretcher in Oklahoma City.
“I was just in complete shock, I remember waiting to get into the ambulance outside the plane in a stretcher and my friends saying, ‘We’re going to the hospital,’ and I’m like, ‘What?’ I thought I was still dreaming.”
Dr. Chaudhry could not stress more how important it is to learn to do CPR and the benefit of doing it over deciding not to.
“It is important to realize that the benefit from doing CPR far outweighs the harm that you could do someone who does not need chest compressions,” he said. “The rule is: If there’s no sign of life, you start CPR. If there’s any sign of life, you stop CPR.”
Brittany could not agree more.
“CPR is super important and something now I’m going to be a super advocate about,” she said.
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