{"id":31119,"date":"2023-10-13T17:09:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31119"},"modified":"2023-10-14T06:41:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T06:41:41","slug":"army-doctor-helps-care-for-unresponsive-child-on-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=31119","title":{"rendered":"Army Doctor Helps Care for Unresponsive Child on Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p>A Brooke Army Medical Center physician put his skills to the test on a flight back to San Antonio when a child on the plane became unresponsive.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Army Capt. (Dr.) Ronak Patel, neurologist, was returning home with his wife and baby, after visiting family in Maryland when an urgent call asking for a physician came over the intercom.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!--popup--><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t hear the announcement because I had my noise-cancelling headphones on, but my wife heard it and tapped me on the shoulder,&#8221; Patel said.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The flight attendant came and said they already had someone to assist but a short time later she returned to ask Patel for his help.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;The other person who volunteered was a retired Air Force physician assistant who hadn&#8217;t practiced for more than 20 years,&#8221; the doctor said. &#8220;So, we worked together. He helped with finding the medical equipment that was available on the plane.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The parents said the 4-year-old, who had a genetic disorder and several other medical issues, wasn&#8217;t responding when they tried to wake her. They checked her oxygen level, and it was only at about 40%. Her normal oxygen level is 90% or above.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;She was breathing very shallow, rapid breathes,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;She had a tracheostomy tube from past surgeries, but the parents said she wasn&#8217;t currently oxygen dependent.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>They tried giving her oxygen and it helped a little, but not as much as they hoped it would.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;When we opened her trach, she gave a little cough and we could hear her congestion,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The parents told Patel that she had been sick a couple of days earlier and that she was on antibiotics.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;I asked if they had some type of suction device on the plane, but the parents said they had one and a nebulizer in their bags,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;We were able to suck some mucus out through the trach tube and give her a nebulizer treatment. Then her oxygen level started to go up, but as soon as we would take the oxygen mask off it would start to drop again.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Even though her oxygen level was back in the 90s, she still wasn&#8217;t waking up, so they collectively made the decision to divert the plane to Houston so the child could get additional medical treatment.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;As we made that decision, she slowly started wiggling around so I asked her mother to call her name and stimulate her by tapping her a little,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Then she did open her eyes and give a good cough. We tried to keep her awake until the plane landed, but she was in and out.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>As soon as the plane landed Emergency Medical Services came and took the child off the plane, so Patel doesn&#8217;t know the outcome.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>&#8220;Am just happy I was there and able to assist,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I hope that she was able to get the additional care she needed to recover.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Brooke Army Medical Center physician put his skills to the test on a flight back to San Antonio when a child on the plane became unresponsive.\u00a0\u00a0Army Capt. (Dr.) Ronak Patel, neurologist, was returning home with his wife and baby, after visiting family in Maryland when an urgent call asking for a physician came over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31122,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31119\/revisions\/31122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}