An intensive care nurse’s hopes of a relaxing holiday were shattered before he even stepped off the plane — after he was called into action three times on the flight.
David Smith, 29, was travelling to Japan with Cathay Pacific when an air hostess made an urgent request for help after a man collapsed.
“When I got to the patient he was pale and clammy because he had doubled up on his diabetic medication. I got the air hostesses to clear the gangway and I treated him.”
The man was given sugar paste. Mr Smith, from Hornchurch, monitored him for a couple of hours to ensure he did not fall into another diabetic coma.
Mr Smith was then called to treat a pregnant woman for abdominal pains. He gave her herbal remedies, examined her, checked there was foetal movement and restricted her medicine to prevent harming the baby.
Recalling the flight in November, he said: “I felt I was just doing my job, but to say thank you the captain let me into the cockpit and the team gave me an upgrade, a card and gifts.”