A California Congressman is being hailed as a hero after he stabilized a passenger who collapsed on a plane, 30,000 feet in the air.
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) was on American Airlines Flight 175 from Washington, D.C., to Dallas-Fort Worth when a fellow passenger in his 60s lost consciousness, CBS reports in the video above.
Ruiz, who is an emergency room physician, helped stabilize the passenger before the plane made an emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina. A firefighter and a flight attendant also pitched in to help.
"[The passenger] was sitting on his chair and he lost consciousness. We laid him on the floor and he lost consciousness again," Ruiz recalled to CBS. "A man by the name of Tony who was a fireman who actually did a wonderful job as well as did the flight attendant. This was truly a team effort. We worked well together."
Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Texas) was also on the flight and tweeted about his freshman colleague’s good deed.
Medical emergency on flight from DC to TX. Passenger collapses. @CongressmanRuiz, an MD, on board. Passenger stabilized. Landing in Raleigh.
— Pete Gallego (@RepPeteGallego) October 24, 2013
Hope @CongressmanRuiz is on all my flights home! An emergency room dr by training, was impressive to see him in action. He saves lives!
— Pete Gallego (@RepPeteGallego) October 24, 2013
Ruiz has represented Coachella Valley since last November, when he defeated incumbent Mary Bono Mack.
"I put on my doctor hat," Ruiz, who was educated at Harvard Medical School and UCLA, said about the incident on the plane. "We go on immediate patient-first mode."
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