Turkish doctors save man’s life on plane

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Members of a surgery team from the eastern province of Malatya’s İnönü University’s cardiothoracic surgery department were coincidentally on the same plane as a passenger whose heart stopped working. AA photo

A passenger whose heart stopped working on a Turkish Airlines plane en route from Istanbul to Stockholm on May 8 was saved by a team of doctors, daily Star reported today.

Members of a surgery team from the eastern province of Malatya’s İnönü University’s cardiothoracic surgery department were coincidentally on the same plane as İbrahim Çelik when the 85-year-old’s heart stopped working and were able to save the elderly man’s life because they happened to have medical equipment in their carry-on luggage.

Dr. Olcay Murat Dişli and his team were on their way to the Swedish capital for a medical congress but were required to perform the emergency surgery after being informed of Çelik’s condition by the cabin crew.

“The passenger İbrahim Çelik’s pulse stopped and his face color went purple,” a flight attendant told the doctors.

Doctors inserted a chest tube and the plane made an emergency landing at Ukraine’s Lviv Airport, where Çelik was hospitalized.

The flight continued on to Sweden after a half-hour stoppage in Ukraine.