During a KLM flight from Uganda to Amsterdam on April 29, Oklahoma cardiologist Dr. TJ Trad was abruptly awakened mid-flight. A teammate had alerted him that a passenger was experiencing a medical emergency. Still groggy, Trad hurried down the aisle to find a man drenched in sweat and clutching his chest in pain.
“Am I going to die?” the man asked anxiously.
“Not today,” Trad reassured him.
Drawing from both his medical expertise and personal experience—having survived a heart attack just a year earlier—Trad quickly assessed that the man was likely suffering a cardiac event.
Equipped and Ready
As fate would have it, Trad was returning from a medical mission trip to Uganda with Cura for the World, the nonprofit he founded to build clinics in underserved regions. He had essential medications and a 12-lead ECG device with him. He always carries an even more crucial credit card–sized device: the KardiaMobile, a portable electrocardiogram.
This device, which syncs with a smartphone app via Bluetooth, allowed Trad to continuously monitor the man’s heart activity throughout the crisis.
Creating a Makeshift ER at 30,000 Feet
The patient, a Dutch man, rated his chest pain a 10 out of 10. His panicked wife asked if the flight needed to make an emergency landing. Trad’s first task was to calm the couple, the flight crew, and nearby passengers.
“Our training prepares us to take control and calm the chaos,” Trad explained.
He quickly converted a row of airplane seats into a makeshift emergency room, laid the man down using airplane pillows, and elevated his feet to improve blood flow to the heart. After ruling out complications like low blood sugar or blood clots, Trad administered five heart-attack-related medications.
As per CNN, the doctor then used both the standard 12-lead ECG and his KardiaMobile to monitor for dangerous arrhythmias—irregular heartbeats that can prove fatal if not treated promptly.
Life-Saving Intervention
Within 45 minutes of receiving treatment, the man’s chest pain and heart rate began to improve. Thanks to the KardiaMobile, the patient could place his thumbs on the device and transmit real-time data to Trad’s phone app, allowing for constant monitoring during the remaining three hours of the flight.
Though the pilot consulted with KLM’s on-ground physician about an emergency landing in Tunisia, Trad advised against it, saying the patient had stabilized.
Trad explained, “If we had landed in Tunisia, they would have only taken him to get a heart catheterization and done nothing differently.”
A Twist of Fate
Interestingly, Trad’s own heart attack had forced him to postpone a previous medical trip to Uganda in February. This delay ultimately put him on the exact flight where he was most needed.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” he said.
As the plane approached Amsterdam, the man’s chest pain briefly returned but was resolved with additional medication. He remained stable through landing.
A Full Circle Moment
Upon arrival at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, an ambulance awaited to transport the man to a nearby hospital. According to his wife, the hospital ran tests for 12 hours and ruled out a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism—likely due to Trad’s rapid intervention.
KLM later confirmed to CNN that the flight crew safely landed the plane and handed the patient over to medical professionals.
For Trad, helping save this man’s life felt like a personal victory and poetic closure after his own brush with death. Before rushing to catch his connecting flight, he shook the man’s hand and offered warm wishes for his recovery.