Doctor saves Dutch woman's life after heart attack on KLM flight to Buenos Aires

An Argentinian doctor saved a Dutch woman’s life on board a KLM flight from Schiphol to Buenos Aires on Tuesday. She suffered cardiac arrest over the Atlantic Ocean during the flight, and the doctor resuscitated her for 1.5 hours, the Argentinian news platform 0221 reports.

The plane made an emergency landing in Sao Paulo in Brazil, where emergency services were waiting to take over the Dutch woman’s care. Her current condition is unknown.

According to the 36-year-old doctor, there was “terrible” panic on the plane when the woman became unwell. “We didn’t know where everything was, we barely had room in the aisle, there was turbulence, and other passengers tried to see what was happening,” he told 0221.

Another doctor helped him, and other passengers helped translate so that the woman’s husband could provide her medical history. They worked on the woman for about 90 minutes before the plane could land.

It was very lucky for the woman that the doctor was on the plane at all. According to the man, he almost couldn’t get onto the flight at Schiphol Airport because it was overbooked.