An Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) from the Hatzalah in Rockland County, NY, helped save the life of a female passenger who fainted during a JetBlue Airlines flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, during the early hours of Thursday morning.
One photo shared on social media from the scene shows Naftali Schischa wearing blue gloves and assisting the woman, who is seen lying on the floor of the plane with an oxygen mask on her face, as their flight flew above South Carolina after leaving New York’s LaGuardia Airport at 11:20 pm on Wednesday night.
Rabbi Yosef C. Golding, executive director of the Rockland Hatzalah, told on Thursday this is “an everyday situation” for Hatzalah volunteers and that any Hatzalah member “would do the same thing.”
“Our members, as well as all other Hatzalah members, do this all the time whenever they’re called upon 24/7, 365 [days a year]. So to us it wasn’t a surprise,” he added. “The surprise was only that someone caught it on camera and publicized it. It happens all the time.”
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Schischa, who formerly volunteered with Hatzalah in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before joining the Rockland County division, provided medical assistance to the passenger after she suddenly fainted in the aisle.
A fellow passenger reportedly said the woman collapsed about an hour into the flight and the pilot was preparing to make an emergency landing but because of the medical attention that Schischa provided, the flight was able to continue to Florida. The flight eventually landed at Fort-Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday morning at 2:36 am, one hour and 35 minutes late, according to FlightAware.
