Waiting For Takeoff, Her Heart Stopped. Flight Attendants Came to the Rescue.

(Photo courtesy of Vonnie Gaither) Vonnie Gaither hated leaving a reunion of extended family in Baltimore. Still, she had to tear herself away to start the trek back home to Anchorage, Alaska. Her flight from Baltimore to Salt Lake City was uneventful. After boarding the plane bound for Anchorage, she buckled up and called a friend to let her know she was on her way. She then slumped over. A pair of flight attendants walking down the aisle to check that passengers were wearing their seat belts found her. She was unresponsive and didn’t have a pulse. One attendant, James “Hutch” Hutchison, performed CPR. Another went to retrieve an automated external defibrillator. The AED sends an electric pulse or shock to the heart to restore a normal heart rhythm. A jolt on the plane failed to generate a sustained rhythm. Gaither was being taken away from the plane, toward rescue workers inside the airport, when she was given a second jolt on the breezeway. Her heart required a third jolt in the ambulance on the way to a hospital in Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, Gaither’s adult daughter, Toi Gaither Registe, who was living near her mother in Anchorage, got a...