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.]