Southwest Flight 947 from Dallas to Las Vegas had to make an emergency landing in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday evening after a passenger suffered a medical emergency, a spokesperson for the airline told NBC News.
After a man became sick, a flight attendant asked on the intercom if there was a doctor on board "because a patient was not feeling well," according to passenger Laurie Holloway, the Senior Director of Communications at the Dallas Zoo. Holloway, a former EMT, and a woman who said she was a physician joined flight attendants to attend to the man who was "feeling dizzy, light headed and clammy,” Holloway told NBC News.
Holloway said they were able to monitor the man's heart rate and breathing, and have him lay across three seats so they could better assist him. The flight crew affixed the man with an oxygen mask and took his blood pressure, noticing it was very low. As a precaution they took out the defibrillator and attached it to the man to monitor his heart rate, but they did not shock him, she said.
“The other passengers were very calm, they did everything they could to help,” Holloway said.
The man was conscious the entire time, according to Holloway. The man was traveling with his wife, who told Holloway he was 58 years old and from the Dallas area.
“When the flight crew got him to the gate they whisked him away…the whole flight crew was involved," Holloway said. “I Hope he is doing well. That is the hard part, I guess we will never find out.”
The flight has since taken off from Albuquerque and is on its way to its initial destination in Las Vegas, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson said.