It was 1977 and I had just graduated from Hospital Corps School. I had two weeks leave in Puerto Rico, and had boarded a flight heading to San Diego with a stop in Houston. I was sitting next to an Army motor T guy and a civilian. We had just left San Juan and I was depressed (broke up with girl friend etc.) anyway, the stewardess came over to me and asked me if I was a doctor (she saw my caduece over my HN rank. I told her I was Corpsman and asked what she needed. She told me that there was a woman on board suffering from a heart attack. Now as you can imagine, having just graduated A school this was like asking a brand new QM to command a ship. But I got up to see what I could do. The women had her eyes closed leaned back clutching her chest. Her husband was standing up in the aisle and told me she had Angina. So I thought of my drug therapy training. angina: nitroglycerin tablet sublingual...100% O2. So I asked for her meds, made sure she got a tablet under her tongue. We remove arm rests and laid her down, I asked for an oxygen bottle and the attendant brought me one. I got her on oxygen and started talking to her, calming her down regulating her breathing. She finally opened her eyes...she was an older women (of course at 17 they all were) and when she opened her eyes she had these beautiful blue eyes. She looked down at the O2 mask and was startled...so I took it off and asked for water. I lifted her up and after the water, she spoke for the first time and thanked me. I smiled, told the stewardess and the husband that she will be all right (like I was a veteran medical professional). I sat back down and the guys sitting next to me asked me what happened. I told them a lady had a medical problem. The stewardess came back all excited and told me I could have anything I wanted to drink, so I asked for champagne for me and my friends. They kept our glasses filled the entire way to Houston..when they had a flight crew change, the new crew came by and told me that they heard what happened and they had instruction to keep us happy the rest of the trip. It was my first patient, but it was a testament to Navy training and how they make sure we knew our stuff before we headed to the fleet.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:13:27 +0000
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