Scrub typhus and hepatitis B patient falls ill mid-air, docs on flight to Kol revive him
Times of India | 7 October 2024
Kolkata: Three doctors on board a Kolkata-bound flight from Bengaluru resuscitated a middle-aged flyer, who was vomiting blood mid air and complained of shortness of breath. The flyer, Uttam Das, was suffering from scrub typhus and Hepatitis B.
When the cabin crew looked out for emergency help from passengers, the trio came forward and ensured that the patient remained stable enough so as to avoid an emergency medical landing at Bhubaneswar airport.
The flight captain had asked them if the flight had to be diverted to Bhubaneswar. But the patient’s son said he didn’t have much money to treat him in a different state. “We (the doctors) consulted among ourselves and stayed with him all the while to ensure he was stable enough till we reached Kolkata around 1.20pm,” said MM Shamim, a neurologist at a private hospital in Siliguri, who was returning home after being conferred a gold medal, a day before at convocation ceremony in NIMHANS.
After the flight made priority landing in Kolkata, his family members travelling with him took him to a government hospital in ambulance. According to officials, around 11.40am on Saturday, an hour since the flight had taken off from Bengaluru, a cabin crew announced that the passenger had fallen ill and asked for help if there were any doctors on board.
“My wife and I were quick to respond. He was in a state called Hematemesis, caused because of internal bleeding in the upper digestive tract.
The airline crew provided us with a medical kit and we could put the patient on intravenous fluid and initiate oxygen support,” said Shamim, a neurologist at a private hospital in Siliguri. Shamim said there was spontaneous help from several passengers. While one passenger handed them a new pulse oximeter,another elderly passenger offered a box of emergency medicines. “We checked his history and found he also had a chronic liver disease. His son, accompanying him told us he was a labourer at Kerala where he was diagnosed with the disease and that he was bringing him back to his home at West Midnapore for treatment,” said Naznin Parvin, Shamim’s wife and a paediatrician at another hospital in Siliguri. A surgery resident from MS Ramaiah medical college in Bengaluru also|helped them in the effort.