Doctor saves passenger on flight with pocket-sized tool: “I believe everything happens for a reason, I truly do”

Three hours into a KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam on April 29, Oklahoma cardiologist Dr. TJ Trad was awakened mid-flight with news that a passenger needed urgent medical help.

Rushing over, he found a man in distress, drenched in sweat and suffering intense chest pain.

Fortunately, Trad was returning from a medical mission and had essential supplies with him, including a 12-lead ECG and a personal credit card-sized ECG device, the KardiaMobile, which he always carries.

Trad assessed the man’s condition and administered five medications commonly used in treating heart attacks. “The later manifestation of a heart attack is an arrhythmia. That’s how people die,” he explained. Using the KardiaMobile, the patient’s heart was monitored in real-time for arrhythmias, with improvements showing within 45 minutes. The man simply had to place his thumbs on the card which then transmitted data on his heart activity to Trad’s app via Bluetooth.

“I think our training is so extensive that you almost get trained to be the captain of the ship and to calm everyone around you,” he explained after making a makeshift bed with a row of seats.

Despite the option of diverting the plane to Tunisia, Trad advised the crew it was safe to continue to Amsterdam. The man remained stable, though his chest pain briefly returned before landing and was again relieved with medication. “We had a nurse that was taking his vitals every 10 to 15 minutes… and we had him hooked up to all these things… if we would have landed in Tunisia, they wouldn’t have done anything differently other than obviously taking him to get a heart cath,” Trad said.

Upon landing, the man and his wife expressed deep gratitude, with her telling Trad, “You’re our angel in the sky.” Doctors later found no signs of a heart attack, which Trad believes was thanks to the rapid intervention.

KLM told CNN the plane landed safely at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, where an ambulance was waiting. The hospital examined the man for 12 hours and did not diagnose him with a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism, his wife added to the news outlet.

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