The Sharp Experience at 30,000 feet

Travel is meant to be exciting, but Tina Sufan, RN, a psychiatric nurse at Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, may have gotten far more excitement than desired when traveling to Hawaii with family members earlier this year.

An avid adventurer, Sufan has taken more than her fair share of flights — traveling everywhere from Bora Bora and Dubai to Singapore, several European countries and beyond. However, her plane ride to Honolulu took a dramatic turn in midair when a page came over the speaker asking for medical assistance.

Tina immediately sprang into action.

Taking charge halfway to Honolulu

A woman in the middle seat of a row was pleading for help.

“She was terrified, crying, ‘I need help, I need help,’” Sufan recalls. “She was really pale and sweating profusely. Her shirt was drenched with sweat. When I touched her skin, it was cold and clammy.”

Sufan took charge of the situation. After asking the woman about potential medical issues, Sufan and others helped her to the back of the plane.

“I was thinking of the worst-case scenario,” she says. “If we needed to do CPR, we had to move her immediately.”

Sufan also asked the flight attendants to bring their medical equipment, specifically oxygen and an automated external defibrillator (AED), which can regulate a person’s heart rhythm if they are having a heart attack.

Sufan helped the woman to the plane’s floor and took her blood pressure. It was 80/40 — dangerously low.

A safe landing

Thinking quickly and realizing the need to keep blood flowing to the woman’s vital organs, Sufan put her into a modified version of the Trendelenburg position, which involves a person being positioned flat on their back on a 15- to 30-degree incline with their feet elevated above their head. Sufan faced the woman and lifted the woman’s legs onto her shoulders — left leg on Sufan’s right shoulder and right leg on her left shoulder.

Sufan watched and waited, closely monitoring the woman’s breathing.

After about 15 minutes, the color started returning to the woman's face, and her blood pressure stabilized. Fifteen minutes later, the woman was able to return to her seat, where she safely remained for the rest of the flight, with Sufan regularly checking on her.

"Your training just kicks in," Sufan says. "I don’t even know her name or what caused the episode — I’m just glad I was able to help. Because it doesn't matter if I'm in a hospital or a plane at 30,000 feet — I always give The Sharp Experience.”

Where in the world

Upon arriving in Honolulu, Sufan ensured the woman was in the care of waiting EMTs. Then, she, a friend, her son and his girlfriend truly began their Hawaiian vacation.

And it certainly won’t be her last getaway. Grateful for Sufan’s assistance, the airline presented her with a free round-trip ticket for her next big adventure.

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