Mid-Air Miracle: How AIIMS Doctors Saved 2-Year-Old Girl’s Life On A Flight

New Delhi: In a miracle of sorts, a two-year-old child got a new life on board a Vistara flight.

It so happened that the baby girl with a heart defect, who was on board a Vistara flight from Bengaluru to Delhi on Sunday, stopped breathing.

Fortunately for the family, there was a team of doctors travelling on the same flight.

As the crew made an emergency announcement seeking medical assistance, the five senior resident doctors of AIIMS Delhi came forward to administer emergency medical treatment and saved the toddler’s life.

The doctors were returning from a conference of the Indian Society for Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

AIIMS Delhi took to its official X handle to share details of the incident and photos of the baby and doctors.

“It was a 2-year-old cyanotic female child who was operated outside for intracardiac repair, who fell unconscious and cyanosed,” AIIMS Delhi wrote. A cyanotic patient is born with a heart defect, called congenital heart problem.

The child’s pulse was found missing when she was examined and her “extremities were also cold.”

She was not breathing and had cyanosed lips and fingers, AIIMS tweeted.

Cyanosis is the bluish-purple discoloration of skin, usually resulting from a lack of oxygen in the blood.

The team of doctors — identified as Navdeep Kaur – SR anesthesia, Damandeep Singh – SR cardiac radiology, Rishab Jain – ex-SR AIIMS radiology, Oishika – SR OBG and Avichala Taxak – SR cardiac radiology — immediately performed resuscitation procedures.

“IV canulla was successfully placed, oropharyngeal airway was put and emergency response was initiated by the whole team of residents on board and the baby brought to ROSC – return of circulation,” AIIMS informed.

The child’s heart rhythm was revived, but the crisis didn’t end there as she suffered a cardiac arrest.

The doctors kept working for 45 minutes as the flight was diverted to Nagpur due to the medical emergency.

They used an automated external defibrillator (AED), a device used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.

“It was complicated by another cardiac arrest for which an AED was used. For 45 mins, the baby was resuscitated and the flight was routed to Nagpur. On reaching Nagpur, the child was handed over in stable hemodynamic to the paediatrician,” AIIMS informed.

On landing in Nagpur, the child was handed over to a pediatrician in a stable hemodynamic condition (normal blood circulation).

#Always available #AIIMSParivar
While returning from ISVIR- on board Bangalore to Delhi flight today evening, in Vistara Airline flight UK-814- A distress call was announced

It was a 2 year old cyanotic female child who was operated outside for intracardiac repair , was… pic.twitter.com/crDwb1MsFM

— AIIMS, New Delhi (@aiims_newdelhi) August 27, 2023