'Meant to be': Oklahoma cardiologist treats man's heart attack symptoms mid-flight

Yahoo

31-05-2025

An Oklahoma cardiologist had a full circle moment when a Dutch man complained of chest pains on their shared flight.
Dr. TJ Trad, a cardiologist at Stillwater Medical Center and founder of the nonprofit Cura for the World Foundation, was traveling home from a medical mission trip in Uganda when he was awoken on the flight to Amsterdam, CNN reported. A man was complaining of chest pain and needed a doctor, he was told by a nurse on his team.
Trad found the man drenched in sweat, and he asked the doctor, "Am I going to die?"
"Not today," Trad told him before getting to work.
Trad had the medications needed to treat a heart attack on hand — including nitroglycerin, Aspirin, Plavix, metoprolol and lisinopril — part of the around two dozen medications he carries with him on medical mission in case anyone on his team has an emergency.
But Trad, 43, also had a pocket-sized electrocardiogram, which he carries with him since having his own heart scare last year.
One February morning in 2024, just days before he was scheduled to fly to Uganda for a planned medical mission trip, Trad said he was doing a procedure on a patient when he began having chest pain. He was experiencing an 80% blockage in one of his arteries — he had a stent placed that same day and canceled his trip to Uganda.
As a way to mark the one year anniversary of his cardiac scare, Trad finished the climb to Everest Base Camp at the beginning of March.
"I believe that everything happens for a reason, as cliche as that might sound," Trad said. "Maybe the event that occurred a year ago was the nidus for me to be on that specific plane to help that specific person. Every time, let's say something negative or positive happens, it's good to kind of sit back and reflect on what's the downstream effect of that? So yeah, I feel like we were meant to be on that flight to help."
Not only does Trad believe he was meant to be on the flight to help the Dutch man, but he has the same sense regarding the trip to Uganda. While on their trip, Trad met an 8-month-old girl with a 7.8 millimeter ventricular septal defect.
The funds have already been raised to cover her heart surgery, which should be taking place soon, he said.
"What are the chances that a cardiologist would appear at that specific time in her life ... it's one of those things," Trad said. "It's not a coincidence."
The man on the plane told Trad his chest pain, on a scale of 1 to 10, was a 10. It was a pain Trad had warned his patients about, but also one he had felt himself.
About 15 minutes after Trad gave him medication, the man's chest pain was gone. But the doctor and nurse continually monitored his symptoms, checking his heart rhythm every five to 10 minutes for the duration of the flight.
"After his symptoms subsided, I told the pilot, 'We bought time to get to Amsterdam so that he can go to the hospital there,'" Trad said.
CNN reported that the man was examined for 12 hours at the hospital and was not diagnosed with a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism — possibly as a result of Trad's treatment of the patient.
Before going their separate ways, the man's wife told Trad, "You're our angel in the sky."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma doctor treats heart attack symptoms on flight home from Uganda