Doctors' remarkable life-saving act during mid-flight emergency
Two doctors have been praised for stepping in to help save a woman who was struggling to breathe on board a flight.
As the doctor's pumped oxygen into the woman's lungs while the plane descended during an emergency landing, passengers had to hold the doctors to stop them sliding down the aisle.
John Flanagan and Matthew Stevenson, who are said to be anesthesiologists, created a makeshift respiratory machine using items found on the aircraft after an elderly woman collapsed and went into respiratory arrest about 20 minutes into a flight from Florida to Jamaica in January.
As the plane descended the women's breathing improved with the lower altitude.
"There was a moment when we thought she might not make it but we managed to get her hooked up somehow and she started to come round a bit." Mr Flanagan told The Mirror.
"As we got down to the lower altitude she started to look a lot better. I think if we hadn't got down she would have died."
The pair realised they had to take matters into their own hands after checking with crew members and realising there was not the necessary equipment on board to help the passenger - with Mr Flanagan trying to help the woman breathe unassisted, while Mr Stevenson began constructing the machine, the Mirror reports.
Xenia Flanagan, the very "proud" wife of one of the men, posted about their heroic actions online and shared a number of images of the incident.
Mrs Flanagan wrote: "These two men used the oxygen tanks on board along with airbags to create the tools they needed to save her..
"They pushed oxygen into her lungs for 45 mins in the middle of the aisle as the plane made an emergency landing to Ft Lauderdale"
In the pictures, passengers can also be seen supporting the doctors so they would not move in the aisle during the plane's descent.
Mrs Flanagan wrote: "It was both amazing and terrifying at the same time to witness my husband and his friend do something they do everyday..save someone’s life.
"It was beautiful to witness so many good samaritans praying and holding them up during the entire ordeal. I’m so thankful God placed them there at the right time."
Mr Flanagan told The Mirror that the woman could not breathe as the plane reached the higher altitude as she has lung disease.
She was taken to hospital following the emergency landing.
