Kolkata: Doctors recently performed their duty mid air on a flight to save the life of a fellow passenger, a cancer patient, traveling from Pune to Kolkata via an Indigo flight.

The condition of the middle-aged Bangladeshi woman worsened during the flight and she collapsed. The woman was undergoing cancer treatment in Dhaka.

The crew members announced that there was a medical emergency and asked if any medical professional was present on the flight who could help. After learning about the crisis, a doctor volunteered to help.

The doctor, Captain Dr TVSVGK Tilak, working with the Indian Air Force, intervened immediately and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and revived the patient within a minute. An oncologist traveling alongside helped in attending the patient and administered emergency medicine and oxygen. The patient recovered by the time the flight landed.

Dr Tilak said that on hearing that a passenger needed medical assistance, he alerted the air hostess and attended to the woman, a lung cancer patient. He added that two other colleagues, one a surgical oncologist and the other, a neurosurgeon, established the IV. They didn’t have a nebulizer, so the patient was given an inhaler. The patient was stabilized.

After the flight landed in Kolkata, the patient was rushed to a local hospital. The doctor thanked the staff of the airline for providing immediate help to the passenger.