Jefferson anesthesiologists save air passenger’s life during flight

A U.S. Airways passenger on Friday was lucky to have not one doctor onboard with her, but three. During a flight from Philadelphia to Denver, a 71-year-old woman standing in the cabin fell to the floor unconscious.

Three anesthesiologists from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on their way toa conference in Montanta — Kishor Gandhi, Eric Schwenk and Benjamin Vaghari — responded right away, according to an email from Zvi Grunwald, chair of the department of anesthesiology.

Noting that the woman had no pulse, they performed CPR and started an intravenous infusion of glucose in case she was experiencing a heart problem or metabolic disorder.

She regained consciousness promptly and took some aspirin. When the plane landed in Denver, local emergency medical services took over care for the woman, who had seemed to make a full mental and physical recovery.