Student uses classroom skills in real-life situation
Acts quick in near death experience
Rikki Saldivar
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: Entertainment
What seemed to be a routine flight in Denver turned out to be an eye-opening experience for a dentist who put his classroom lessons into life-saving action.
The flight crew asked if anyone had medical training and if so, to push their call button.
"I went up to the front (of the airplane) and there's this guy," Robert Stroumpos, dentist and Central student, said, "and he's sweating; he's out of it, and his eyes were kind of rolling back."
The man was diabetic and had recently vomited. When Stroumpos went to talk with him, he seemed drunk and disoriented.
"That sort of behavior is typical when the blood sugar is low," Stroumpos said. "He said that he had just eaten and then thrown up. Then he said, 'my thing doesn't work, my thing doesn't work.' He couldn't speak English real well. I thought to myself, 'your thing.' He lifted his shirt and showed me his insulin pump. His insulin pump had malfunctioned."
Stroumpos then had the man lie on the floor of the plane to administer oxygen, and his blood sugar level registered at 420, which is above normal levels that read 80 to 120. At this point, it is possible for someone with this blood sugar level to seize or slip into a coma.
"We're flying to Portland, a five-hour flight," Stroumpos said. "We called medical control because you can't really do anything unless you have your license. I do as a dentist, but you still want medical control to know in that situation."
Medical control suggested oxygen be administered; however, no one was able to ask about the insulin the man needed to stabilize his condition.
"I got my (medical) bag, and I saw that his blood sugar level had gone up to 480, so it's getting pretty high," Stroumpos said. "He had just vomited so you'd expect it not to be rising so quickly between the five to 10 minutes of the two blood sugar readings."
The pilots asked if they could land on a strip that was about an hour and a half away, yet because of the length of time that would lapse, it would risk the life of the ill man on board.
The flight crew asked if anyone had medical training and if so, to push their call button.
"I went up to the front (of the airplane) and there's this guy," Robert Stroumpos, dentist and Central student, said, "and he's sweating; he's out of it, and his eyes were kind of rolling back."
The man was diabetic and had recently vomited. When Stroumpos went to talk with him, he seemed drunk and disoriented.
"That sort of behavior is typical when the blood sugar is low," Stroumpos said. "He said that he had just eaten and then thrown up. Then he said, 'my thing doesn't work, my thing doesn't work.' He couldn't speak English real well. I thought to myself, 'your thing.' He lifted his shirt and showed me his insulin pump. His insulin pump had malfunctioned."
Stroumpos then had the man lie on the floor of the plane to administer oxygen, and his blood sugar level registered at 420, which is above normal levels that read 80 to 120. At this point, it is possible for someone with this blood sugar level to seize or slip into a coma.
"We're flying to Portland, a five-hour flight," Stroumpos said. "We called medical control because you can't really do anything unless you have your license. I do as a dentist, but you still want medical control to know in that situation."
Medical control suggested oxygen be administered; however, no one was able to ask about the insulin the man needed to stabilize his condition.
"I got my (medical) bag, and I saw that his blood sugar level had gone up to 480, so it's getting pretty high," Stroumpos said. "He had just vomited so you'd expect it not to be rising so quickly between the five to 10 minutes of the two blood sugar readings."
The pilots asked if they could land on a strip that was about an hour and a half away, yet because of the length of time that would lapse, it would risk the life of the ill man on board.
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