How This Doctor And His Pocket-Sized Tool On Plane Saved A Man's Life

NDTV

19-05-2025

An Oklahoma cardiologist, aboard the same flight as a passenger who showed symptoms of a heart attack, saved him, thanks to quick thinking and a pocket-sized electrocardiogram, or ECG.
Last month, Oklahoma cardiologist Dr TJ Trad was on his way from Uganda when a teammate informed him that a patient needed medical attention.
As Mr Trad hurried to assist, he found a man sweating profusely and complaining of chest pain. He believed the man was experiencing a heart attack.
Mr Trad, who survived a heart attack a year ago, was carrying a pocket-sized electrocardiogram, or ECG. The gadget is the size of a credit card.
He was returning home from a medical trip in Uganda with 'Cura for the World', and also had the necessary equipment and drugs to save the man's life.
According to the doctor, the patient said his chest pain was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Mr Trad then set up a temporary emergency room across a row of seats using airline pillows, placed the man down, and raised his feet to restore blood flow to his heart.
Following the exclusion of blood clot and blood sugar issues, the doctor used a 12-lead electrocardiogram from the medical mission trip to determine whether the man was experiencing a heart attack. He immediately administered five drugs commonly used to treat heart attacks.
Trad then monitored the man's heart for irregular beats, or arrhythmias, using his own KardiaMobile ECG, which analyses the electrical activity of the heart. Since his own heart attack last year, Trad has carried the KardiaMobile card in his wallet in case he experiences another cardiac incident.
When the man placed his thumbs on the card, it used Bluetooth to send information about his heart activity to the doctor's app.
The 12-lead ECG was essential in confirming that the man was experiencing heart attack symptoms. The card also enabled him to continuously check for arrhythmias for the next three hours.
"A cardiac attack can subsequently show as an arrhythmia. That's how people die," Mr Trad explained to CNN.
The doctor confirmed that 45 minutes after taking the medication, the man's chest pain and heart rate began to improve.
The man's wife told CNN that Mr Trad and a nurse did an "unforgettable job" in keeping her husband's health from worsening.
The man remained steady for the next two hours of the journey. As the plane was ready to land, his chest pain resurfaced, but Mr Trad said he was fine after taking more medication.