Doctor able to help on flights

Published Nov. 18, 2009
By Steve Pivnick
81st Medical Group Public Affairs

KEESLER AFB, Miss. -- "Is there a doctor on board?!" This is a plea an 81st Medical Group surgeon has responded to on three occasions while traveling aboard passenger aircraft.

Maj. (Dr.) Yekaterina Karpitskaya's most recent in-flight emergency occurred Sept. 28. The major, an orthopedic surgeon with the 81st Surgical Operations Squadron, was on an international flight from Memphis to Amsterdam en route to Budapest, Hungary, to run the Spar International Budapest Marathon.

"There was an overhead announcement requesting medical personnel to report to where a 59-year-old woman was complaining of chest pain," she said. "She was from Pensacola, flying with her husband on their way to Italy for a vacation. The flight crew put us in first class where she could lie down and I had space. I placed an oxygen mask on her face and carefully monitored her vital signs. She was not getting better. I attempted an EKG (electrocardiogram) using onboard equipment, but it was outdated and not functioning properly. At that point I gave her aspirin and nitroglycerin (from the aircraft's emergency kit) and advised the captain that we had a patient with atypical chest pain and a possible cardiac event in progress. Diversion was arranged so the patient could be transferred to a local medical center."

The flight ended up landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, where emergency medical technicians took over.
Major Karpitskaya said the woman's husband later contacted her and let her know his wife was fine.

Her first mid-air medical assistance call occurred in April 2007 when she was returning to Los Angeles after running her second Boston Marathon. A diabetic woman experienced weakness and a headache during flight. The other incident happened in May 2008 during a flight to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, with a passenger with severe abdominal pain. Both cases ended on positive notes.