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Home » Valentine's Day » Local doctor happens to be on a plane when woman has life-threatening seizures

Local doctor happens to be on a plane when woman has life-threatening seizures

Dr. Darshan Patel, a doctor working in Internal Medicine at Guthrie Cortland Medical Center, was finally able to go on a reunion trip to Columbia with other doctors, when on his flight home, the pilot called out on the overhead asking for a doctor.

He immediately responded to the crisis, saying it was like something you’d see on TV, and took a woman’s vitals who was having a seizure. He used a kit available on the plane.

A normal blood pressure is 120 over 80, but Patel said the woman’s was in the 260s over 160.


The kit had critical medication, and Patel said it was astounding to him that his trip was delayed due to COVID three times as well as his flight being delayed, which put him on the same plane as this family.

He described that moment as the moment that doctors, nurses, and physicians wait for in there career; the moment where they really get to save someone’s life.