Army officer saves a passenger's life onboard Pune-Chandigarh Indigo flight

Representative Image

An Army doctor reportedly saved the life of a critically ill 27-year-old man during a flight from Pune to Chandigarh by resuscitating him. According to the agency reports, the officer gave emergency medicines to the man and requested an emergency landing in Mumbai.

Major Simrat Rajdeep Singh, a medical officer with the Western Command Hospital, Chandimandir (Haryana), told PTI that while he was travelling from Pune to Chandigarh by an Indigo flight on Monday. A co-passenger, who boarded in Goa, started experiencing respiratory distress mid-air at an altitude of 39,000 feet, Singh told PTI.

"I asked about the previous medical history of the patient, who was from Belgaum, from his brother, who was also travelling with him. The medical reports showed the patient has small kidneys with poor renal function," Singh told PTI over the phone on Tuesday.

Clinically, the patient was reportedly in "fluid overload" and was getting drowsy. He also had accelerated hypertension, tachycardia, and tachypnea, and gradually he started gasping, the medical officer told PTI.

According to the PTI reports, the crew had most of the necessary equipment and drugs available in their medical emergency kit, he said.

Singh said he gave the required emergency drugs to the patient through intravenous line access and kept him on continuous oxygen support for an hour, according to the PTI.

Singh reportedly requested the flight captain to lower the altitude and make an emergency landing at the nearest place, as Chandigarh was still two hours away. Since Mumbai was the nearest airport, the flight made an emergency landing here. Preparations were made in the meantime to rush the patient to the hospital as soon as the flight landed, Singh told PTI.

The patient was reportedly rushed to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run R. N. Cooper Hospital.

"Major Simrat Rajdeep Singh of Western Command Hospital, Chandigarh, while on board in Indigo6E724 flight from Goa to Chandigarh, saved the life of a 27-year-old critically ill patient. He resuscitated the patient and requested an emergency landing at Mumbai," the Indian Army's Western Command said in a post on X on Monday, reported the PTI.

Singh told PTI that he spoke to the doctor treating the man, an emergency dialysis was conducted on him, and he was feeling better.