West Hempstead Boy Scouts save a life mid-flight

Isaac Samuelson, 17, had just finished a trek through New Mexico with other members of West Hempstead’s Boy Scout Troop 613, and was looking forward to napping on the flight home. He wasn’t expecting to help save a life.

Soon after Southwest Airlines flight 2847 took off from Cimmaron, New Mexico, on July 11, one of the passengers went into cardiac arrest. As the emergency unfolded, Samuelson found himself searching the cabin for anyone who might have epinephrine, or adrenaline, in any form, as troop parent Rachel Travis performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the unresponsive man.

“I think that’s the most scared I’ve ever been,” Samuelson said. “And I’ve been around bears before.”

The man’s face had turned blue, he had no pulse, and he probably would have died if not for the quick actions of the Boy Scouts.

Two weeks earlier, Samuelson, Travis and fellow est Hempstead Troop 613 scouts Akiva Secter, 14, and Michael Tarnor, 14, had embarked on a hike across Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The trip, arranged through the National Jewish Scouting Committee, accommodated scouts who eat kosher meals and observe Shabbat.

They hiked more than 100 miles, carrying and rationing their own food and supplies, navigating with the use of a map and compass, while learning how to help fellow scouts who are struggling or injured.

The teamwork and resourcefulness they learned on that trek was crucial, Travis said — but she never expected it to be put to the test so soon.

A flight attendant made an announcement over the intercom: Any medical professionals on board were needed at the front of the plane. Travis, a registered nurse, bolted out of her seat.

“I just got up,” she said. “It’s instinctive.”

A flight attendant “quickly just pointed to a gentleman who’s sitting in the window seat in the front row,” Travis recounted. “And he was blue. He was lifeless. I immediately asked, ‘Are you all right? Are you OK?’ And I shouted for somebody to get the med bag, get the AED and start CPR.”

In order for an automated external defibrillator to be used in a case of cardiac distress, the victim’s heartbeat must have a “shockable” rhythm. Travis quickly determined that the victim had no such rhythm, and didn’t even have a detectable pulse. She and three other medical professionals who had responded would have to take turns administering cycles of CPR to keep the man alive. They needed more help, so Travis told the flight attendant to “call Evan, and get the Scouts.”

Evan Gilder, the leader of a different troop from White Plains which also took part in the trip, had gathered scouts who were CPR-certified. Samuelson hurried to the front of the plane, saw that Travis had given the victim an IV, and joined the line of scouts who were taking their turns as well in the fatiguing task of giving the man chest compressions and rescue breaths. They were exhausted after two weeks in the wilderness, but, Samuelson recalled, that suddenly didn’t matter.

“I wasn’t thinking anymore,” he said. “My body kicked into overdrive.”

The medical professionals administered two vials of epinephrine from the flight’s medical bag, and the man’s pulse returned — but not for long. It was “thready” — weak, rapid and unreliable. And all the available epinephrine had been used up.

“The idea that you’re called upon in an unexpected moment, and you rely on your skills and teamwork and the feedback of others to be helpful,” Travis said. “And the idea that you can say, I have expended all the resources I have available. What clever thing can we come up with?”

At that point, Samuelson raced through the cabin, asking passengers if they had EpiPens. They are designed to combat allergic reactions, and each contains a small dose of epinephrine.

“I’m 17 — I recently got my driver’s license,” Samuelson said. “Now this 70-year-old guy’s life is in our hands. This isn’t stuff I learned in school.”

But the three EpiPens that Samuelson and another scout found made all the difference. After Travis administered the doses, the man’s heartbeat finally returned to a steady rhythm.

The scouts joined in prayer for his life as the plane made an emergency landing in Pittsburgh. He was taken to a hospital, where, they learned a few days later, he was recuperating, thanks to the efforts of Travis, Samuelson and the other scouts and troop leaders.

“Afterwards, we’re all sitting there and we all kind of realize why we did it,” Samuelson added. “I felt grateful for Boy Scouts. I finally realized why I spent so many weeks, months, years doing this stuff — because you can actually learn something out of it, which really helped save a man’s life.”

Travis described the incident as “an instant community of people, united to save a man’s life.

"Alone, none of us would have been able to do what we accomplished together.”