It all started out innocently. Your family is on its way to Cleveland for a wedding, and suddenly, just after take-off, your three-year-old son starts coughing to the point of turning blue. “He had a little cough last night,” you tell yourself, “but it wasn’t like this.” Panic starts to set in and you ask the flight crew for help.
Over the intercom, a crew member asks if there is a doctor among the travelers. And then you find you couldn’t have asked for a better result. Two physicians were on board; one a pediatrician and the other an emergency room doctor. Together, the two physicians treated the boy, who had come down with a severe case of croup. Pediatrician Paula Schlesinger, M.D. of Kelsey-Seybold’s Main Campus was on board.
“He looked terrible,” Dr. Schlesinger said. “Somebody on the flight had an inhaler, and there was also a medical kit on board. We used what we could in the kit, and he started to perk up a little. But he wasn’t really waking up and responding normally.”
Within the hour, the flight landed in Dallas so that the child could be taken to a hospital. “By the time we landed, he was starting to complain, so I knew he was improving,” Dr. Schlesinger said.
It wasn’t long before the little boy became Dr. Schlesinger’s patient. “Not long after the incident, his mother brought him to see me,” Dr. Schlesinger said. “She was concerned that, because it came on so fast, it might happen again. Croup is one of those illnesses that can be life threatening in some circumstances.”
Dr. Schlesinger says it’s not all that unusual for a doctor to be called on in situations like this one. But then most situations aren’t like this one.
“I’ve never been in this sort of situation before,” she said. “I’ve taken care of minor things at church retreats and such. I’ve never seen someone this sick outside of a hospital. It was kind of scary because there wasn’t much in that medical kit (for caring for a child).”
Nevertheless, it was a happy ending thanks in part to one of Kelsey-Seybold’s Super Doctors.
