How I Saved A “Breathless” Man’s Life On Akasa Flight – Dr Philips

Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips, a passenger on an Akasa Air flight from Kochi to Mumbai on the night of January 14, played a crucial role in rescuing a fellow traveller experiencing difficulty breathing due to critically low oxygen levels and high blood pressure. Recounting the incident on the flight, Dr Philips mentioned that it marked the first occasion in three and a half years that he had actively utilized a stethoscope. The family of the distressed passenger expressed gratitude to Dr. Cyriac Abby Philips for his life-saving intervention.

Dr Philips shared that he was trying to take a nap as he was tired from work. At that time, a man sitting next to him started facing difficulties in breathing. “I found the air hostess trying to plug in the man’s nebulizer for emergency inhalational treatment and I helped her get the machine running. He spoke in broken sentences, but he was not getting better,” he wrote on X. 

He shared that he was confused about why the passenger who did not have asthma, had a nebulization kit. “I asked for the stethoscope and found that his left-side lung sounds were completely absent. It was water-filled (a condition called pleural effusion),” he said. 

He shared that he was confused about why the passenger who did not have asthma, had a nebulization kit. “I asked for the stethoscope and found that his left-side lung sounds were completely absent. It was water-filled (a condition called pleural effusion),” he said. 

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The passenger in between breaths told the doctor that his kidneys were bad. “I asked him if he was on dialysis and he was on it three days a week and the next one was planned for the next day. His medications were over last night. I scroll through his unlocked phone images to see his last prescriptions. Most were for high blood pressure. I checked his blood pressure and found it was 280/160 and he was in accelerated hypertension with drowning lungs. We had 1 hour to land for emergency medical services to attend him. We had to keep him alive,” Dr Philips recalled. 

Dr Philip shared that in mid-air, he did a double puncture on his only accessible vein on the right side and further access was lost. The other upper limb had a dialysis fistula made and the doctor could not use it. “So I gave him a frusemide injection into his buttock muscles ( a VERY long time since I gave an adult an intramuscular injection) after telling him it was going to pain, but I had no other options and also because it was so hard to find a vein as he was struggling and the flight was a bit turbulent,” dr shared. 

Dr Philips also praised the crew of Akasa Air who helped him in keeping the passenger alive. “They quickly changed and provided oxygen cylinders without haste helped me get his saturation to above 90%. I found some blood pressure-lowering medications in the flight ER kit and helped the man swallow them in between breaths,” the doctor shared.