Firefighters Save Airline Passenger

[Guest partyrock]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/10/21...test_too-4.html

Daily News

Michael Daly

The invention is designed to be compact, but it would not fit in an overhead compartment, and a flight attendant stashed it in a closet in first class.

The three inventors were flying coach, and they settled into a row of seats toward the back as Delta Flight 17 to Atlanta prepared to depart from Kennedy Airport on Monday morning.

The plane was just beginning to roll away from the gate when a young man jumped up two rows in front of the inventors. He began to tug at an older man who had slumped over in the seat next to him.

"Papa! Papa!" the young man called out.

The fear in his face was unmistakable as he continued trying to rouse the older man.

"Sit down!" a flight attendant ordered.

"Papa! Papa!" the young man continued.

The inventors leapt up and rushed over. The older man appeared to be unconscious, and the inventors raised his limp arm over his head and let go. A conscious person will instinctively move his falling hand so as not to strike himself.

The man's hand struck his face, confirming this was more serious than a little drowsiness. The inventors learned anew the difficulty of moving a full-grown unconscious person in a tight space as they shifted the man to the bulkhead area. They announced themselves to the startled passengers and crew.

"We're New York City firemen! Get out of the way!"

Firefighter Tommy Fee put his fingertips against the man's carotid artery. He felt no pulse and did chest compressions as retired Lt. Frank Haskell called for the defibrillator aboard all flights. Planes also carry an oxygen tank, and retired Lt. Mike Harty got that going.

A flight attendant brought the defibrillator. The firefighters tore open the man's shirt and applied the two pads. A mechanical voice crackled from the device.

"Analyzing patient.... Prepare to shock. ... Step away. ... Shock."

Fee hit the red button marked Shock. The resulting jolt of electricity made the man's body jump.

"Analyzing patient."

The firefighters saw a bounding line on the defibrillator's small monitor screen.

"Back to life," Fee later said.

The next urgent step in keeping the man alive was to get him off the plane. Harty hurried to first class and got the invention they had not checked as baggage for fear it would be damaged before they showed it to the prospective manufacturer they were flying to see.

Out of the black zip bag came the 40-inch Rapid Intervention Tactical Evacuation (R.I.T.E.) rescue sled the trio had developed to remove unconscious firefighters and others from difficult spaces. They raised the man toward a sitting position and scooted the end of the thin plastic shell under his backside and eased him back. They needed only an instant to secure straps at the waist, groin and shoulder, including the oxygen tank and the defibrillator in the package.

Fee grabbed the strap at the end. The sled slid smoothly behind him as he hurried down the Boeing 777's long aisle toward the door at the front where they had boarded. The crew told him the tow bar used to move the plane had broken.

"They tell us, 'It's going to be a little while,'" Fee recalled. "We said, 'We don't have a little while.'"

A flight attendant opened the door and several Port Authority cops and paramedics peered in from the end of the jetway, too far from the immobilized plane to take the man, but close enough to see what he was strapped into.

"What is that thing?" they asked.

"It's a prototype," the firefighters said.

Fee grabbed the haul line again and effortlessly turned the man around and moved him back down to the middle of the plane to another door, where a portable stairway was being rolled across the tarmac. The steps were narrow and steep, but posed no problem for the R.I.T.E. sled.

"We slid him down like gentlemen," Fee later said.

An ambulance arrived.

"What is that thing?" the attendants asked.

"A prototype," the firefighters said.

The ambulance raced away, and the firefighters returned to the plane. They were moved to first class, along with their invention, and accorded a standing ovation by the passengers.

Yesterday, the firefighters stopped by Lenox Hill Hospital to see the man, who they had learned is 52-year-old Jadisncha Prajapati from Bombay, India. He is doing well and will be leaving New York with his life and an official FDNY T-shirt.

[Guest]

Outstanding.

[NJMedic 96]

Outstanding.

Great job.

Lenox Hill Hospital? I wonder how he got there. Not exactly the closest hospital to JFK.

BTW I'd like to see this device.

Edited October 21, 2007 by NJMedic

[Ladder44 73]

wow thats unbelivable, Tommy Fee sounds very fimiliar, o yea he was in the documentery Brotherhood and he rode with Squad 252 i think, but thats amazing what they did

[nycemt728 49]

Seriously, does anyone have any information on the device or where I can get info?

[Monty 35]

I think there was a piece in one of the magazines recently (firehouse / fire rescue?), possibly by Chief Salka about this, with some pictures. From the article, reading between the lines, it sounded like they pitched to the makers of Sked - without much luck (the article didn't say explicitly who they pitched it to). Hopefully they'll have better luck now.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Great work by the FDNY Brothers. "The funny thing about firemen is, night and day they're always firemen." These guys proved that statement true.

1000 points to whoever can name the person I quoted.

[Guest]

Ronald Bartel

[Guest]

Portrayed by Donald Sutherland. These guys are another example of why this is such a noble profession. Great job guys.

[Guest]

http://riterescuenyc.com/rite_sled.htm