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Doctor saves overdose victim on flight

Dr. Anil Punjabi was about to fall asleep on the airplane when he heard a flight attendant call for help

By EMS1 Staff

BOSTON — A doctor saved an overdose victim while flying to Minneapolis from Boston.

Fox25 Boston reported that Dr. Anil Punjabi, a cardiologist, was about to fall asleep when a Spirit Airlines flight attendant yelled for a doctor.

Passengers told the crew there was a woman who had been in the bathroom for a while, and when she got back to her seat she turned grey and slumped over. Passengers could not find a pulse.

Dr. Punjabi and an OBGYN nurse gave the woman CPR and found a needle in her bra.

“We were down on the ground within 25 minutes, but at that time she was completely unresponsive,” Dr. Punjabi said.

Dr. Punjabi, the nurse and an EMT trainee worked to keep the victim alive until the plane landed at an airport in Buffalo, where the woman was transported to the hospital.

Dr. Punjabi was concerned about the airline’s preparedness for emergency situations like this.

“You need to talk to your union, you need to talk to Spirit, you need to talk to the company. I said the one thing you need to get in your med kit is Narcan,” Dr. Punjabi said.

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