Stafford nurse saves life at 30,000ft

Beverlee Pedley was on a flight to Manchester after a holiday in Egypt, when crew on the flight needed help after the man in his 50s collapsed.

The nurse, who has worked at Stafford Hospital for 37 years, persuaded the crew to land the the Boeing 757 at Gatwick to get him immediate treatment.

She said: "Getting a plane full of passengers to land early was quite a big decision to make for everyone involved.

"But when someone is having a suspected heart attack, you only have a small amount of time to administer life-saving clot-busting agents to get the best outcome.

"It was my advanced training and experience that gave me the confidence to assess, diagnose and treat the gentleman and to tell the captain that he needed to land the plane early."

There was no time to get the man to hospital once the plane landed, so paramedics administered clot-bust intreatment in the ambulance on the Gatwick runway.

The senior advanced practitioner, of Madeley, Telford, said: "I called the hospital afterward to find out how he was and he was well enough to be able to speak to me, which was great.

"On reflection, the responsibility of taking care of someone 30,000 ft in the air was quite daunting and it didn't hit me until afterwards.

"The cabin crew and everyone else involved were brilliant – it was a real team effort.

"It's just not what you expect when you're on a flight home from a holiday."

She became an advanced senior practitioner five years ago after 26 years as an intensive care nurse at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Trust deputy director of nursing, Jill Davies, said: "When we heard what Beverlee had done, we all thought it was marvellous."