While I am not at all surprised, I am so proud of my wife Heidi after she stepped up to the call of duty when a medical emergency occurred onboard her United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago on Tuesday afternoon.
When United Airlines Flight Attendants Asked For Emergency Medical Assistance, My Wife Stepped Up
Heidi was traveling to Chicago on UA2487 on April 8, 2025 and seated near the back of the plane. About an hour outside of Chicago, flight attendants made an urgent announcement asking if there were any medical professionals onboard.
There were three, a pediatrician, a nurse practitioner, and my wife Heidi, a registered nurse. A senior citizen seated in the bulkhead row of the economy class cabin suffered a heath event and needed urgent care.
I’ll avoid the details out of respect for the passenger’s privacy, but it was a potentially life-threatening event. Providentially, my wife is an ICU nurse.
She was prepared!
The three medical professionals worked well together on the floor of the galley in front of the first class cabin and were able to stabilize the patient.
They sat with the patient, who remained on the floor, until paramedics met the aircraft upon landing in Chicago O’Hare.
The entire plane clapped for my wife and her two colleagues, a scene I was so sorry to have missed.
I’m also so thankful that on a plane full of 200 people there were medical professionals who were willing to step up and provide 100% effort during a very tense period to save a life. It’s the highest calling of the medical field.
Heidi, I’m so proud of you! I’m proud of you for being a great nurse, wife, mother, and person…with people like you planning to be part of the medical field for decades to come, I am confident that we can build an even better healthcare system in this country.
As an aside, flight attendants offered her a choice of 7,500 miles or $150 for her assistance, which was really not necessary…my wife and the other two medical professionals were happy to assist. It’s doing what is right. Yesterday, United also reached out and left a message on her mobile phone thanking her for her stepping up to help.
Kudos to the three for stepping up. In a nation that is divided and a world that is broken, it is beautiful to see humans come together instantly and without hesitation to help someone in great need.
Good leads the way.
Did she pick the 7,500 miles or $150 gift?
Yeah, come on Matthew, the most important part of the story is missing!!! 😀
I guess he thinks it’s so obvious she took the money, it’s not worth writing. 2c per mile?!
Let’s just say H did not consult me before making her choice! 😉
Well done Heidi! My partner did the same on a flight ZRH-YUL and he was so impressed with all the kit Swiss had onboard. The patient was stabilised and we were gifted 2 bottles of champagne as a thank you. I know FAs are trained in first aid of course but having medical professionals on board must be such a relief to them when the emergency seems quite dire.
Very cool. My wife assisted once during an emergency (she’s a family medicine physician), and it was also a very proud moment for me. This was also when I learned what those triangle signs are, spaced out every few seats, and it is to plug comms directly into the cockpit. She was able to listen in on the cockpit communications with ATC and also talk directly to the captain about passenger status and her recommendation for continuing or landing immediately. Ultimately patient was stabilized and we could continue. A couple of days later Southwest reached out with a thank you and a $200 voucher. Ironically she was flying as my companion and hadn’t paid for the flight at all lol. Always a relief when there’s a professional onboard. Kudos to your wife.
Good for your wife. If I had answered that call, I would have been quite glad to have an ICU nurse at my side!
Colleagues have expressed reluctance, in this litigious time and place, to rise to the call, but I’ve always felt it’s our duty to society to do our best in situations like these.
Did she show proof of credentials? One FA (Delta?) did not believe that a black doctor was a doctor.
That’s a great photo of Augustine! He’s growing fast! :p
My wife is a family doctor and once during a cross over the Atlantic on Delta she wasn’t allowed to help a lightheaded pax because she wasn’t carrying a copy of her license. Thankfully another doctor sitting in business class did. Pax just had low blood sugar. My wife says that’s perfectly fine, but if a passenger is in full on cardiac arrest and you’re the only doctor offering to help, she’s pretty sure the crew wouldn’t be as adamant that someone shows their credentials.
A friend of mine experienced a similar situation regarding being asked for his medical license after helping out during an in flight emergency. My friend just explained he didn’t carry it with him, and then asked “What, do you think this is my thing? I fly around on planes hoping for a medical emergency so that I can pretend to be a doctor for a few minutes?”
These days some states do issue wallet card style licenses, but in the old days, this wasn’t a thing. Many doctors do not carry their licenses with them– they are not spot checked in any other situation. Also almost all states (if not all) offer online license lookup now, so you can verify active licensure in real time if needed. There is no need to rely on a wallet card.
She should have given him a minute. He would have been fine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QRiXwiKGR9g&pp=ygUiY3VyYiB5b3VyIGVudGh1c2lhc20gaGVlZCB0aGUgY2FsbA%3D%3D
I’m of the theory that No good deed goes Unpunished. It’s not a bad way to go through life and for all the happiness here about this, know there could be a family member disappointed they aren’t collecting an insurance policy and inheritance in these tough times. Always 2 sides to a story.
As for the mileage offer, what a joke. Basically what AA offers those with status for complaints about a missed connection with a simple email.
Isn’t that more on AA than UA?
No kidding. I know of a wicked lady who killed 2, possibly 3 people for an inheritance. Did so without a gun or knife so got away with it.
Douchebag Dave Edwards, here’s a free hint, no one gives a sh-t about your theories. By all accounts, of which there are many because you obviously have such an empty life that you have nothing better to do than post nasty moronic racist bigoted conspiracy theories here EVERY DAY, you are a completely horrible human being, devoid of any virtues or redeeming qualities, a proverbial waste of oxygen. Please crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from.
I really need this positive story today after a rough 24 hours.
$150 or miles are really not that important but is a kind gesture. I think what I give United the most credit is actually a phone call. These days most of us won’t pick up a call from an unknown number but leaving a heartfelt thank you message shows that United is truly thankful. Sometimes a few minutes of real human speaking means more than a certificate of $150 or a couple thousand miles.
Thanks to your wife and thanks United!
That’s really awesome and she’s amazing.
Proverbs 14:1
Medical School & Kindness, 4/08
Talk about being the change you want to see in the world. I tell our son “when you can, you do”
Thank you Heidi and your fellow med professionals for helping.
What an incredible thing for her to do!
A question for you: you write that they stayed on the floor until they arrived in Chicago. Does that mean that they weren’t sitting with a seatbelt during landing?
More curious, not the point of the story!
Heidi ended up sitting in a first class seat in row one with the patient at her feet on the floor. The team felt it was not wise for the patient to sit up.
And I forgot to add how my wife played a critical role in comofrting the patient’s very anxious spouse onbaord, another essential part of providing good medical care.
Heidi is great!
You may be curious but , as the comments show, medical professionals read this so could benefit from a medically oriented article.
Was it a heart attack or fainting or broken hip or epileptic seizure. My guess is not Ebola. Did they consider diverting?
I will say that Heidi and her colleauges wanted to divert, but the flight was only about an hour from ORD.
Also remember airlines have doctors standing by on the ground for consultation. Although not sure if they override the judgment of someone who is sitting with the patient and recommending a diversion.
If the medical professionals recommended diverting, I’m curious how the conversation went with the Captain/FA’s insisting on continuing to ORD. Did they simply take a calculated risk, or were the medical professionals not worried about the extra half hour time difference of diverting versus continuing to ORD?
United (like most major US airlines) consults with ground-based doctors via a specialty telemedicine service called MedAire. MedAire, airline operations, and the crew use the inputs from any onboard medical professionals as a factor in making a determination about if/how to proceed.
Delta, I heard, gives nothing.
I heard that if you accept, particularly if it’s a voucher with a dollar amount, that the sick passenger could sue you and say that your accepting money means that Good Samaritan laws do not apply. They could do that ìf you accepted miles but there’s a good defense that miles are worthless, even more so if they are Avianca or Delta Skypesos.
>>>>>Matthew, please co-author with you wife an article describing what happened, including medical details. This could help teach others what to do and not do. Nobody knows who the passenger was. There are case reports all the time published. Details could also include what she consider while it was happening. If you like, email me and I will coauthor something. I once sat next to an Aruban dental student who was the only medical professional. She admitted what her qualifications were and only knew basic stuff. Later, I sat with her and wrote a summary, which I gave to her for her education.
Oh Jesus here we go. The reader playing lawyer on social media. Full disclosure, I’m not an attorney either but I also play one here. There are specific good Samaritan laws that cover this stuff at the federal level, and the passenger has no standing in a transaction between the airline and the assisting passenger, nor is this considered a compensation for services since none was offered for the service when the airline called for a doctor. Also, my wife once wasn’t even allowed to help by the crew, because she wasn’t carrying a copy of her medical license. But of course it was a pax who was just feeling lightheaded, and not a full blown medical emergency like a cardiac arrest.
Here’s some homework for reading:
The Aviation Medical Assistance Act (AMAA), enacted in 1998, protects medical professionals from liability for providing medical assistance during in-flight emergencies, but not in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (.gov). This act essentially acts as a Good Samaritan law for in-flight medical emergencies, shielding those who offer help from lawsuits. The AMAA prevents medical professionals from being sued for damages in federal or state court for providing good-faith medical assistance during in-flight emergencies.
My advise for any doctors who refuse to assist during in-flight medical emergencies is if you’re too scared to help someone in cardiac arrest or a seizure because you’re afraid of getting sued, maybe you’re in the wrong profession.
“please co-author with you wife an article describing what happened, including medical details.”
This isn’t a good idea. Matthew has already shared the flight number and date. There were at most 190 passengers on the plane, and there was only one passenger on that flight who was treated in the first class galley in the hour before landing.
“Nobody knows who the passenger was.”
You have no way of knowing if another person on that flight knew that passenger, and you have no idea if there are people who would be able to identify the passenger by the information given. It would be illegal to needlessly disclose the medical information of the ill passenger to the other passengers who witnessed the event even if those other passengers do not know the ill passenger by name.
There is a lot of grace given to professionals for incidental disclosures during an emergency event. Willfully disclosing another person’s protected health information for your own profit is an entirely different matter.
Amazing!! I’m in awe of people who are able to answer to anywhere near this level of emergency. She deals with it every work day (and more)!
well done, Heidi!
Nurses are heroes everyday. The compassion on this flight proves that they should always be thanked .
So thank you Heidi. We are grateful for your service. Blessings.
Super job Heidi! Amazing professional!
Question: Is that pic actually her? If so the first photo of Heidi!
Yes, that is Heidi! I twisted her arm. 😉
As a retired ER and part-time cruise ship doctor and Navy Flight Surgeon (and 2000 hour private pilot) with ~1.7 million lifetime BIS miles, I’ve assisted several times, didn’t respond a couple of times, and even once been blocked from assisting by a paramedic, with obvious scornful expression, who got to the empty 1st class aisle seat next to the window seat “patient” a moment before I got there. (Fortunately that time was a non-event but I did suggest to the purser/lead FA upon deboarding to include in their report that while they didn’t need to ask for credentials, they should ensure that the most qualified medical respondent(s) are allowed to respond.)
There’s a lot of misinformation in the comments above. A savvy attorney can get around the AMAA and any other Good Samaritan laws. We live in the most litigious country in the world.
I agree that it would be helpful, to other medical professionals who might think about responding in the future, for Heidi and/or one of the other respondents, to write more about it, including medical details in such way as to NOT violate privacy laws (omitting names, flight date and itinerary), in a medical or nursing publication, particularly regarding “Heidi and her colleagues wanted to divert, but the flight was only about an hour from ORD”. (In some situations every minute is significant, medical professionals have an expression, “time is brain (or heart)”.)
Re “I twisted her arm.”, please be careful, someone, like Douchebag Dave Edwards as he’s apparently known here, might accuse you of spousal abuse.
See, I am not alone in calling for a more detailed medical report for educational purposes. There were thousands of people flying to ORD recently. Nobody is going to know the name of the person so privacy is served.
Lufthansa gives 5,000 points if you register with them and provide documentation for their data bank. They then know which passengers might help.
“Nobody is going to know the name of the person so privacy is served.”
This isn’t how protection of privacy works. If you are sitting in the waiting room at your doctor’s office and a patient that you don’t know passes out in the waiting room, it isn’t okay for the doctor’s nurse to disclose all of that patient’s medical information to you just because you don’t know the patient’s name. You would still be able to clearly link the medical information to one specific person– that is a violation of privacy. It isn’t required that you know the person’s name.
The retired doctor above specifically stipulated that releasing additional medical details would have to be done without divulging flight date and itinerary. Well the date, flight number, and itinerary have already been provided, and Heidi has been named. If she publishes the medical details of this case, this would at best be a very risky thing to do, and at worst be a clear violation of the individual’s privacy.
The un-named pediatrician and NP could publish the medical details of this situation without revealing enough identifying information to allow readers to conclude that they were discussing this specific event, but Heidi publishing this under her own name at this point would be risky.
Yeah I wasn’t suggested any laws, including good samaritan laws are full proof. You can sue anyone for anything as long as it isn’t a frivolous suit. I was mostly challenging the premise that just because the airline offered a voucher as a thank you, that constitutes compensation that blows up any good samaritan federal law. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on social media and that doesn’t pass the smell test.
Woooo… you DO eat plenty good at home
Good on her! But, I don’t understand why you booked a ticket for your beloved wife in the back of the plane. lol
I’m a basic EMT, and I have assisted before, but not for many years, and also nothing life threatening, and I think both times were on non-US airlines.
I know I’m protected under Good Samaritan laws should something go downhill. But I’ve always wondered what protocol I’m responsible for following. For example, in my state, I can administer albuterol for asthma, but it is not allowed in my very close by neighboring state for basic EMTs. It is my understanding that the pilot staff can contact a medical service for guidance, but the guidance goes from the pilot to the FA to the passenger assisting. To me, that is like the game of telephone. Neither (most likely) the pilot nor the FA have medical training, so how guidance is forwarded between each party is worrisome. I’d rather have the phone to my ear, if possible, and hear the medical guidance directly.
Your wife is HOT!
The flight attendants later made an announcement asking if any medical malpractice lawyers were on board to assist a passenger. 87 lawyers on the plane raised their hand.
Seriously, well done Heidi.
Kudos to Heidi and the other medical professionals who helped!
United offer of 7,500 miles or $150 seems pretty lame to me. They should have given them lifetime 1K status.
That would have been great! 😉
I am a retired Nurse Anesthetist and twice in the past decade have been privileged to assist an other traveler in an emergency situation on board the aircraft. Both times there happened to be another critical care RN onboard as well. It is scary, You simply do not have all of the life saving drugs and equipment that you would find on the ground. In both situations we were able to stabilize the patient and were able to land at our intended destination without diversion. I am grateful that your wife was onboard. I am certain she will never forget the experience. I haven’t. Bravo Heidi !
Way to go Heidi! I’m proud of you!
New licensing in most states will not send a physical license card now.. It is all digital on the internet.. not great if one has to show people at 35,000. My husband and I are keeping our old cards with license number on it so if someone wants to verify at35,000 feet it will make it easier..
Great story! Thanks for sharing, and please thank your wife!
I remember very early on in Med School being told … “Never ever piss off your Hospital Nurse. They will make or break you. They are with your Patients longer than you are”. And that’s FACTS. I have the upmost respect for them and the job they do. When I was just beginning my career and green, I humbled myself and Nurses taught me things that neither School nor taking my Boards could ever do.
Kudos to your wife, Matthew I’m a former intensive care Nurse and I have been on many flights over the years where I have been involved in assisting with medical emergencies and even had one of my own once.
Your wife’s beautiful but somehow I had pictured her having blonde ringlets like your kids.
I was the one with blonde hair when I was young!
Your Wife and the other medical professionals on that flight win today’s medicine for good news! It’s great she was there and able to help. I’m going to bet that somewhere, on that flight, is a little girl or boy, or hell, even an adult that observed what happened and is now inspired to change their lives and career paths. You never really know how far the ripples of your actions will travel, both good and bad. I happen to believe that our good action ripples travel much farther than we think. Brava to Heidi and her airborne medical crew!
Very nicely done. It’s also nice to finally get a visual on the elusive Heidi. I’m a little surprised that United didn’t offer a bit more to her and the others. Sure, something is better than nothing but would a $500 voucher each really have been that awful for people who stepped up, possibly saved a life, and kept the flight from diverting?
My brother and his wife are both doctors. They’ve been on a couple of flights where the crew has requested medical assistance, but mercifully others have stepped-up and saved the stricken passenger in the midst of a medical crisis from being attended by a pair of psychiatrists. It’s for the best 😉
What a great story ! Good job Heidi.
Sadly, On a flight last year from JFK to LHR, my husband – a thoracic surgeon – was on a flight in business class on AA. There was a call for medical assistance. He jumped up to assist. The FA took one look at him – he’s a US citizen but Kenyan by birth with an accent and said it “was covered already no need to assist”. Instead a paramedic and a nursing assistant took care of the passenger who was clearly having a heart attack. The flight diverted to Halifax.
Not making any assumptions but a thoracic surgeon could have easily helped.
That happened on a flight my family and I were on back in 2003, a passenger needed medical assistance and my dad who’s a psychiatrist stepped up to help. He was the only medical professional on board however.
You go Heidi!! Love her!!