Prayagraj doc’s timely intervention saves cardiac arrest patient at Navi Mum airport

Prayagraj: A man from Prayagraj heading to meet his kids had a heart-stopping moment at Navi Mumbai airport. Dr Prakash Khetan, a neurosurgeon, noticed a traveller sweating and looking uncomfortable, checked his pulse, and found it was absent. The situation quickly turned into a medical emergency.Dr Khetan sprang into action, suspecting a major heart attack. He used acupressure to revive the man, while keeping him responsive. A fellow passenger handed over biscuits, but the man's condition worsened. The airport medical team was alerted, and security personnel helped elevate the patient's legs to stabilize circulation. The man soon went into cardiac arrest.
Dr Khetan didn't hesitate — he started CPR, doing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Two neuro-anaesthesia doctors joined in, intubating the patient and providing assisted ventilation. After 10 intense minutes of CPR, the patient started showing signs of life, moving and breathing on his own. The crowd watched as the medical team worked together. The patient was rushed to a ventilator-equipped ambulance for further care.According to Dr Khetan, hewas supposed to fly from Prayagraj to Bangaluru, but missed his flight. The airline and airport officials helped him take an alternative route via Mumbai. As he was heading out of Navi Mumbai airport in a buggy, he spotted a young co-passenger looking really uncomfortable. He checked the man's pulse, and it was absent. The situation turned into a medical emergency. Dr Khetan is a Guinness World Record holder (for performing an 8-hour surgery on an 8-year-old girl and removing 296 cysts from her brain in 2011). "I salute the prompt and able medical intervention by the medical team stationed at the airport, and the revival was a collective effort. I credit the airport's emergency preparedness and medical infrastructure for the timely response," he said.This was not the first time the Prayagraj-based neurosurgeon stepped in to save a life outside a clinical setting. In 2022, he successfully revived the Chief Manager of Bank of Baroda in Prayagraj by administering CPR during a sudden cardiac emergency.A source at Navi Mumbai airport said, "The passenger, who was heading for Delhi on the Friday, suffered with high palpitation and was attended immediately and after the timely intervention of the doctor from Prayagraj and the medical team, deployed at the airport, he was stabilized and later he went home, deciding not to board his flight for Delhi."