This week, a pilot made an emergency landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport and a passenger experiencing cardiac arrest was saved by a Sunwing flight attendant.
As the Cabin Safety Manager on duty on Tuesday, Marisa Rodrigues was getting ready for a routine landing of a Sunwing flight from Cancun to Toronto (CSM).
Then, a call light near the center of the aircraft briefly flashed. She spotted a woman having a seizure as she drew nearer. Her entire body was convulsing.
“I noticed that her fingers and around her mouth and face started to turn blue and purple and her face was gray,” Rodrigues said. I had to take her from her seat, put her down on the seat, lay her down, and start CPR immediately.”
They removed the woman from her seat and placed her down on the plane’s floor with the assistance of a nurse and medical student who had responded to the call.
The woman was given oxygen and an automatic external defibrillator (AED) when Rodrigues placed her head between her legs and started to force air into her lungs.
“As that was being placed on…we realized that she had a heartbeat…it was very, very shallow and very, very low,” she said.
The captain announced a medical emergency landing as the airplane approached Pearson Airport in order to move ahead of the queue of incoming flights.
A customer who was experiencing medical problems on Tuesday’s flight from Cancun to Toronto was, according to Sunwing, in despair.