DOCTOR TO THE RESCUE
If you happen to have a health emergency while flying to India or back, one thing you can probably count on is having a doctor on board. That’s one of the benefits of flying on a plane with hundreds of people of Indian descent. Of course, you will also find a number of engineers, computer programmers, and other professionals on board, but when was the last time a pilot asked, “Is there an IT expert on board?”
Medical emergencies on flights are rare, thankfully, but when they occur, doctors are often the heroes. Such was the case during a recent Malaysia Airlines flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Kuala Lumpur. As one of the passengers, Saurabh Kumar, recounted in a Facebook post, a flight attendant fell unconscious, and Kumar’s wife, Dr. Anchita Pandoh, answered a call for help.
“Anchita took charge of the situation,” Kumar wrote. “Flight crew provided her medical equipment available in the flight. I was worried if the patient didn’t recover then flight would be forced into an emergency landing. Going by the location of flight, touching Australia would have taken two hours and returning to Auckland would have taken one hour. However, with Anchita’s efforts the patient started responding and she opened her eyes. Seeing this all passengers started clapping and cheering. Later the captain came to our seat and thanked her profusely. I felt so proud of my wife.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
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