Nurse praised for quick-thinking after saving passenger’s life at 35,000ft
Man suffered a stroke and may not have survived the four-hour flight
A QUICK-THINKING nurse has been hailed a hero after saving a man’s life at 35,000ft - by ordering the pilot to make an emergency landing.
Helen Turner, 27, battled to save the passenger as she feared he might not survive the four-hour flight from Cyprus to Manchester.
And just twenty minutes later the plane touched down at Sofia Airport in Bulgaria where medics were waiting for the poorly passenger.
The mum-of-one sprang into action when the call was made for any doctors or nurses on board to help the holidaymaker.
The mental health nurse, who had been on a week’s holiday with family to Paphos, said: “I was settled into my seat about one hour into the flight when I heard a panicky-sounding woman shouting, ‘There’s something wrong with my husband’.
“Sat five rows behind, I told the cabin crew I was a nurse and that I could help.
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“I went to see the man, who I think was called Tony, and saw his face had drooped to one side and his eyes had rolled back in his head.
“I kept assessing him and his pulse while the cabin crew wanted to know if we could safely fly on.”
Helen, who works at Salford Royal Hospital, Greater Manchester, added: “Everyone was flapping around him but I was just trying to monitor his pulse, look at his breathing.
“He was responding to me whilst I was checking his vital signs, just like I would if he was my patient in the hospital.”
But then the air hostesses suggested using a defibrillator believing the man, who was in his 60s, was having a heart attack.
Helen told them that the electrical current could kill him, as he was suffering from a stroke.
The air cabin crew asked Helen if the man could make the final three hours back to the UK but she knew he couldn’t and ordered them to land the plane.
She said: “I knew the man wouldn’t survive the journey back to the UK. He would either die or suffer severe damage as a result.”
After the plane landed in Bulgaria, the sick passenger was taken to hospital with this family. The flight then took off again, landing at Manchester Airport with a three hour delay.
But because of “data protection” Helen never found out what happened to the man she saved.
“I would really like to know how he is,” said the nurse, who only completed a course on dealing with strokes just a week before she went on holiday.
Now, Helen is a finalist in St John Ambulance’s Everyday Heroes awards, which honours the nation’s lifesavers.
Modest Helen, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, said: “I don’t feel like a hero as I was just doing my job – what I was trained to do and do every day.
“I am a nurse and helping the man just felt natural to me. If the defibrillator had been used or we hadn’t landed then it would be a very different story for him.
“My little boy Joshua was proud of me, and I felt proud of myself.”
A spokesman for Thomas Cook Airlines said: “On occasions, medical emergencies do happen mid-flight and while crews are trained in advanced first aid and have 24 hour expert medical advice accessible, it’s great to often have medical experts on our aircraft too.
“In this case it seems the often fictional ‘is there a doctor on board?’ call was real and we’re extremely grateful for the off-duty nurse’s support.”