Get ready for anything that life brings your way. That’s what Evan Gilder, the scout leader, tries to live by.
It was the summer, and he was going on a backpacking trip through the wilderness of New Mexico with 10 scouts from New York and New Jersey. He trained and was ready for any medical problems he thought might happen.
Gilder said that in the 14 years that he has been a scout leader, he has been trained in CPR but has never had to use it.
That was not what he thought would happen on July 11 at 30,000 feet.
On the Southwest Airlines trip from New Mexico to New York after the 100-mile hike, a flight attendant asked if there were any doctors or nurses on board.
It wasn’t long before Gilder was asked for help himself, even though a doctor and two nurse practitioners offered. One of the nurse practitioners was traveling with the troop.
A person in the front of the plane was having a cardiac arrest, and Gilder said that it was clear to the people who were doing CPR that they would need more help to keep his heart beating until the plane could make an emergency landing.
Gilder asked two of his scouts to help.
CPR, which involves squeezing the chest hard, is so tiring that one person can only do it for a short time at a time.
A line of four people—scouts, Gilder, and professionals—formed around the passenger and took turns pressing down on his chest, he said. The passenger’s family watched from the front row as the team went through the medical kit on the plane, trying all the possible treatments that might help.
To try to get the passenger’s heart beating again, they got EpiPens, which contain small amounts of epinephrine that are generally used for allergic reactions.
Gilder said that the team did CPR on the man for more than 40 minutes in an effort to get his heart beating again. In case of an emergency, the flight crew told the volunteers to sit down and fasten their seat belts before the landing.
Gilder said that one of the doctors told the flight attendant in a soft voice that the customer would definitely die if they did what they were going to do. As a last-ditch effort, they moved the patient to a row of seats where the CPR line was buckled in and people could do compressions from their chairs.
Just before landing, they felt a beat. The passenger finally felt his heart beating on its own.
Once the plane touched down, EMTs took over and rushed the man to the hospital.
The family was in the front row and watched the emergency happen. In the days after, they called one of the doctors to thank them and let them know that the passenger was stable and asleep, Gilder said.
In an article called “A Story of Pikuach Nefesh (Saving a Life),” Gilder wrote, “People often ask me what scouting is all about, and my answer is always the same: To Be Prepared for what life throws at us.” He sent this essay to friends and acquaintances.
The kids are scouts and are part of the National Jewish Scouting Committee. One of the kids who helped with CPR is already an Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank a scout can reach. Gilder said that the other kid will be named an Eagle Scout next week.
Southwest gave the boys a thank-you note for their help.
Someone from the company wrote, “We thank the scouts for volunteering and the medical professionals who are traveling on the flight.”
Gilder and the scouts thanked other passengers right away, after the patient was taken off the plane, for giving EpiPens (which can cost hundreds of dollars), moving seats to help, or just having their flights delayed.
Gilder said they didn’t know what would happen or if the man would live, but they did know that if the people hadn’t done what they did, something terrible would have happened.
Gilder said, “We did what we had to do.” “That person has a chance; he’s breathing and his heart is beating.”
