Barton Health ER nurse helps save woman on flight to Hawaii

When a nurse on vacation travels to Hawaii, the last thing they'd expect is to be called into service on the airplane trip over. But that is exactly what happened to Daryl Braga of South Lake Tahoe.

Braga was seated and watching an in-flight movie with his wife and daughter on a flight from Sacramento to Maui when a flight attendant hurriedly ran by his aisle seat. Unlike in the movies, there was no overhead page asking for medical personnel, but he knew to go to the action and let them know of his qualifications.

Karen Allen was having a massive heart attack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Braga, a nurse with 14 years of experience, is an RN and emergency department charge nurse at Barton Health where he has responded to and managed emergencies since 2014.

Allen had collapsed in the aisle on the way to the restroom and was unresponsive when Braga arrived. She was cold, pale, and not breathing.

“I’m a nurse, what can I do to help?” Braga said upon arrival.

Luckily for Allen, also on board, and at her side were vascular surgeon Dr. Aaron Baker, Roseville anesthesiologist Dr. Brandon Winchester, and Captain Dan Nelson of the El Dorado County Fire Department.

Braga and Nelson jumped in to perform CPR until a portable automated external defibrillator (AED) that was on the plane arrived to restart Allen’s heart. The AED analyzed and advised a shock, after which a second round of CPR was performed. She had a weak pulse but started breathing on her own. At this point, the flight was at roughly the halfway point to their destination, two hours from Maui and a hospital.

“The assembled medical team worked well together as a unit to perform the rescue in a critical timeline and the flight attendants were amazing, assisting with medical equipment and oxygen,” said Braga. “We used experience and a bit of ingenuity to give her the best care possible; [we] couldn’t easily get a stethoscope reading with the white noise of the airplane, so Dr. Winchester used his watch to get an EKG reading and [we] used a carabiner I had on my carry-on bag to rig the IV fluids from the overhead baggage storage bin.”

For the rest of the flight, Allen, who was traveling alone, was kept comfortable in a stable condition until paramedics intercepted her once on the ground in Maui where she was transferred to a hospital. Braga, Baker, Winchester, and Nelson went their separate ways, exchanging a verbal high-five for their heroic efforts in saving Allen’s life.

The whole team reunited a week later at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, where Baker and Winchester work on the medical staff. Braga joined virtually a break from his shift at the Barton Memorial Hospital ER.

Allen was incredibly grateful to her in-flight dream team, to whom she expressed deep appreciation, “It was phenomenal that I had everyone there that I needed - it was meant to be! You all were just so wonderful.”

“Saving lives is what we do every day in the emergency department, but it’s not every day that I can offer my experience and passion for great critical care in public scenarios,” said Braga. “I’m so happy to have been there along with the others to quickly assemble a highly experienced team who gave Karen the chance to get off of that flight and continue her life.”

According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital each year; tragically, only about 10 percent of victims survive.