Medical Emergency

    Other than dealing with some pretty good turbulence because of thunderstorms we flew through, our flight was relatively unremarkable. We landed in Texas and our passengers began deplaning out the front door. As I thanked each customer and wished them a "goodbye," that's when trouble struck.
    I noticed an elderly man  -- who I would guess to be in his 70s --  fall to the floor just inches from me in first class. Thinking he just tripped, I rushed  over to him and asked him if he was ok. I didn't get a response. Although he was conscious, I knew it was much more serious.
   I reached over and tried to get him to sit in one of the first class seats, but he kept falling over. He was limp, looked confused, and a part of his face looked droopy. From my airline medical training, the first thing that came to mind was this man was having a stroke. I needed to get him help.
    Our training for such emergencies on board is pretty text book: We are to ask our flying partners to get the Automated External Defibrillator, notify the cockpit and purser and call for medical help while at the same time, don rubber protective gloves.
     But today's situation didn't quite happen like this. I had no immediate access to gloves, I was the purser, and my flying partners were in the back of the airplane while the aircraft aisle was blocked by exiting passengers.
      Fortunately, as I looked up from tending to the man, I noticed a uniformed off duty flight attendant leaving the plane and asked her to call the back of the plane and have my flying partners rush to assist me with a medical emergency, bringing with them the necessary medical tools. She did call them, only to tell them "the purser needs you because he is having a problem with a middle eastern man."
     Thinking it was some type of security or terrorist threat, my flying partners immediately called up the first class phone to ask me what was going on. I told them to get up to the front immediately, I had a medical emergency and to bring with them the AED. At the same time, I yelled at the captain, who by now opened the cockpit door, to call for paramedics.
     I still didn't have my gloves. I was still by myself!
     Nonetheless, I struggled with the passenger, who kept trying to get up -- as if to leave the aircraft -- and kept falling over. I asked him to just hang tight and assured him that we were going to take care of him.
    "I'm here to help you," I told him. "We are going to get you better. Just hold on and everything is going to be ok."
     He looked at me, as an infant looks at its parent;
     This whole time, I didn't know if there was some type of language barrier -- because he did look foreign -- or if he truly was having a stroke and didn't know what was going on. It was the most frustrating moment.
     I asked him if he had a medical condition that I should know about. Again, he just stared at me as if looking right through me. It was the saddest look I've ever seen on someone. .
     Finally, my flying partners were able to push their way to the front the aircraft, where I and the ill passenger were. I told them to get the oxygen bottle so that we could at least administer that to the sick passenger. We had no idea who this man was, since he wasn't at his seat.
     Just then the paramedics got to the first class cabin and took over. After a brief assessment, they told me the man's blood pressure was sky high and that it appeared he was suffering from a stroke.  I asked them if they were able to find any identification on the passenger so that I would have it for my report. They were able to give me his Texas driver's license and a boarding pass from a previous flight from China. The man had been traveling well over 24 hours by the time we met him.
    My flying partners told me that during the service, the man ordered no food or beverage, and just waved them on. There was no sign in flight that he was ill.
    Within minutes, paramedics removed him from our aircraft to an area where they had more room to work on him.
    When I last saw them, they were administering an intravenous needle into the man's arm, apparently to quickly get fluids or medicine to him.
    That's when I knew he was in good hands. That's when our training taught us that our duties were over. After gathering some information from the airline customer service agent for my reports, I joined my crew and we headed to the hotel for our layover.
     I thank God that this happened on the ground upon arrival into our destination city. I prayed all the way to the hotel that this poor man, who was by himself, was going to be ok. I wondered if anyone was outside the airport to meet him from his trip to China. I wondered if there was anything different I could have done. I felt guilty that I couldn't do more for him.