Mumbai: Agroup of doctors, who saved the life of a fellow passenger after he suffered a heart attack while on a domestic flight, want the DGCA to make defibrillators mandatory for all domestic flights. As per current aviation rules, defibrillators — devices that can emit an electric shock and thereby revive heart beat — are mandatory only on international flights.On Saturday, the team of doctors who had gone to Kolkata for a medical conference, were returning to Chennai when one of them had a heart attack and fell unconscious while the Indigo flight was cruising at a height of around 30,000 feet.
Fortunately for the 46-year-old surgeon, he got a fresh lease of life when he was revived by a colleague who dealt him a strong blow below the rib cage, close to the heart.
Dr J S Rajkumar, chairman of Lifeline Hospitals, who was part of the group, described the experience as shocking and one that taught several others the valuable lesson about the importance of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). "He had no pulse, even in his neck, and he was ice-cold and unresponsive. For all practical purposes, he was dead," said Dr Rajkumar of the stricken surgeon.
03/01/13 Aditya Anand/Mumbai Mirror
