- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
AN Indian woman in her 50s was found unresponsive in a wheelchair near the baggage belt at the Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia in the US and a timely intervention from the emergency medical personnel saved her life, local authorities said, calling the situation as “harrowing”.
On Tuesday (8), the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the largest federal law enforcement agency of the US homeland security department, said the woman, who is an Indian national and a lawful permanent resident of the US, arrived at the airport in the American capital on Sunday (6) in a 15-hour flight from Doha, Qatar.
The airport ambassadors alerted nearby CBP officers after she was found in an unresponsive state in a wheelchair near the baggage belt.
“For a harrowing 10 minutes, US Customs and Border Protection emergency medical technicians administered extraordinary life-saving efforts” on the unresponsive traveller at the airport, the federal agency said in a statement.
Later, airport paramedics regained a pulse on the woman, who was yet to be identified.
The statement added that as per news from the hospital, the woman was breathing on her own.
Within minutes of finding the woman unresponsive, CBP Officer Nicholas Karstetter and supervisory CBP officer Herman Hundal — both advanced emergency medical technicians (EMTs)– responded and initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) immediately.
Two additional CBP officers — Chief Leo Carbone, also a certified EMT and supervisor Harmanpreet Singh — arrived and took turns administering CPR compressions.
Minutes later, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) fire and rescue team arrived and assumed lifesaving efforts with CBP EMT assistance.
They placed the woman on a stretcher and departed CBP’s inspection station and soon reported that they regained a pulse. MWAA police officers reported that the woman was breathing on her own at the hospital.
“Though the woman didn’t regain a pulse until she was enroute to the hospital, the incredible life-saving efforts by Customs and Border Protection EMTs during those critical first 10 minutes have helped her to survive so that she can spend more time with her family and friends again, and that is a great story,” Daniel Escobedo, CBP’s area port director for the Area Port of Washington, said.
