Hospital Workers Treat Man For Heart Attack On Southwest Flight

A man who slipped into unconsciousness aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to Burbank on Tuesday was lucky that a group of health care workers just happened to be aboard, en route to a union bargaining session.

Thirty-five people who belong to the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers-West were traveling on Flight 3775 to attend labor negotiations when someone in the back of the plane shouted "Code Blue," which is hospital lingo for someone's heart stopping.

Erin O'Neil, a 39-year-old respiratory therapist at Mercy San Juan Hospital in Sacramento, ran to the back of the plane and found a 53-year-old unconscious man.

"I immediately clicked into work mode," O'Neil said. A flight attendant brought O'Neil a device used to administer mouth-to- mouth resuscitation, and he was able to resuscitate the man. The man was able to walk off the plane, where he was received by waiting paramedics.