Man hailed a 'hero' for helping woman having a seizure on flight

United Airlines is under fire for declining to make an emergency landing to secure medical assistance for a passenger who appeared to be having repeated seizures during a two-hour flight on Sunday.

But a spokesperson for United Airlines tells Yahoo Lifestyle crew members were following protocol and “did everything the right way”.

The incident was caught on video by another passenger, Amy Sanford Hammond of Mason, Ohio, who was seated behind the ailing woman. She shared the clip on Facebook, saying she was “stunned” at the flight crew’s refusal to address the situation.

In the clip, the woman — a young mother accompanied by her little boy, according to Hammond — is mostly obscured by the back of her seat, but it is apparent that she’s convulsing.

A young man who identified himself as a firefighter, Ms Hammond told Newsweek, is seen tending to the distressed passenger while another person, who allegedly had medical training, looks over his shoulder.

“While the plane was still ascending, she passed out,” Ms Hammond recalls of the incident, reporting that the man seated directly in front of the passenger jumped up to help and yelled for a doctor, but “no one came.”

The mother soon woke up and started having her first seizure, which began an alarming pattern of convulsing, passing out and regaining consciousness that lasted two hours — the duration of the flight, according to Hammond. She says it happened “dozens of times.”

Ms Hammond writes that the good Samaritan who was trying to help the passenger kept asking flight attendants for the approximate time of arrival, but this never prompted airline staff to land the plane for a medical emergency.

“Do we turn around? No!,” Ms Hammond wrote. “Then she has a seizure. A few minutes later, her body convulses again. Do we turn around? No.”

Ms Hammond says flight attendants not only failed to intervene but were also even climbing over the man in the aisle to serve refreshments to other passengers.

At one point, the pilot can be heard over the intercom telling passengers the flight would be landing in 30 minutes and reciting the weather conditions at their destination while the man struggles to reposition the woman, telling her, “Hey, you gotta wake up.”

Actions of United Airlines crew reflected training instructions

A United Airlines spokesperson tells Yahoo Lifestyle airline workers were not ignoring the passenger’s seizures and had addressed the situation exactly as they were trained to do so.

“When there is a customer emergency, safety is [the crew’s] No. 1 priority,” he said.

“They assessed the situation, reached out to medical professionals on the ground and asked for assistance on the plane.” He says the two men who were helping the passenger had already been vetted by crew members.

He said the advice the flight crew received was to continue with the flight. “Had the medical professionals we were working with on the plane and on the ground recommended that the pilot divert, then we would have absolutely followed that recommendation,” the spokesperson said.

By the time the plane landed, Ms Hammond writes, the passenger was so disoriented she had no idea what month or day it was and could not name the president.

The witness says she spoke to the pilot on the plane who told her it was his decision to stay in the air despite the passenger’s seizures.