Man finds airline passenger who saved his life
PHOENIX (NBC, KYMA) - A man who went into cardiac arrest on a flight from Omaha to Phoenix was able to thank the passenger who saved his life after his search for her went viral.
"He was meant to have more time," said Kaitlyn Louchheim, a nurse practitioner.
Louchheim wasn't supposed to be on a Southwest flight from Omaha to Phoenix last week, but an earlier flight home on her daughter's birthday became a lifesaving switch for Patrick McGee.
"I'm just glad I was in the right place at the right time," Louchheim expressed.
"There are no words you can say. I was gone. They said I was dead and brought back," McGee added.
McGee suffered a heart attack as the plane was landing. He stopped breathing and he had no pulse.
"I was scared...I was scared for him," said Lora Holton, another passenger and retired critical care nurse who immediately started CPR. "You have a lot of adrenaline, and you just do what you're trained to do and hopefully try to help save someone."
Louchheim relieved her, performing deep compressions in the middle of the plane.
"I was thinking that the aisles are really, really skinny and that I'm going to have to sit on top of this poor man and use all of my weight but if this doesn't happen now and it's not effective than this isn't going to work," Louchheim shared.
It did work, and in a matter of minutes Patrick was breathing again, a relief to everyone around him.
"We could see the rise and fall in his abdomen and then he kind of flickered open his eyes," Louchheim detailed.
"Everyone was so excited, beside ourselves. It was really emotional and then he actually opened his eyes," Holton added.
But since that moment, the passengers weren't sure what happened to McGee until they heard about his search for them on NBC affiliate KPNX Sunday night.
"I owe this person a great deal," McGee said.
"Very emotional moment for myself as well," Louchheim added.
Since then, McGee got to thank Louchhiem over the phone.
"He was like, 'You are my angel, I'm so thankful for you,'" Louchheim said.
Louchheim said time is not a luxury in moments like this, but her timing working perfectly in McGee's favor.
"Things that are meant to happen are going to happen and if you have a chance to do the right thing you can't think about it, you just have to do it," Louchheim remarked.
