Travel
Dr. Oz leaps into action to help passenger aboard JetBlue flight as he was traveling to wedding
Dr. Oz went from vacation mode to doctor mode in a split second.
The physician-turned-TV personality helped a fellow passenger who was in and out of consciousness while aboard a JetBlue flight from New York to Mexico on Friday.
“(A) middle-aged healthy man lost consciousness and we did usual triage with physical exam and vital signs,” Oz told TMZ following the flight. “After oxygen, OJ and time, he recovered and needs to have a detailed evaluation with his local physician.”
The scary medical episode took place about an hour into the flight headed for Cabo San Lucas.
Oz jumped in to assist once flight attendants asked for medical help.
Oz was seen leaning over an aisle seat seemingly speaking to the patient as flight attendants stood nearby, according to a video obtained by the outlet.
The ailing passenger was told to drink orange juice because low blood sugar is a cause of sudden syncope (fainting).
Oxygen was also provided because it “is the best drug we ever use,” Oz added.
The one-time Pennsylvania senate candidate revealed that the passenger was doing much better and a source told TMZ that Oz had given his phone number to the man in case he suffered another emergency after landing.
Friday’s flight heroics from Oz isn’t the first time the 64-year-old has sprung into action while traveling.
In 2018, Oz was called to help a passenger who collapsed on a New York flight en route to Las Vegas, Page Six reported.
“I was grabbed by a stewardess on the plane after a 30-year-old guy collapsed,” he said at the time. “I got him to lie on his back and [put] his feet up on the emergency doors, and with that I began to get a reasonable pulse and blood pressure.”
Oz then used electrode pads from the plane’s Automated External Defibrillator to create a makeshift EKG test.
“I couldn’t tell if he was having a heart attack or not,” Oz said. “His blood pressure was really low but his heart rate was really high.”
After the flight, the passenger was transferred to a hospital and the diagnosis was a bad flu.
In 2021, the celebrity doctor was again helping a traveler, this time at Newark airport where he saw a man fall to the ground at the baggage claim area of Terminal A.
The cardiothoracic surgeon — along with a Port Authority police officer — performed CPR as the man was turning as purple as an eggplant, Oz told ABC News.
The 60-year-old New Jersey man was later rushed to a local hospital in intensive care.