It’s always a wonder whenever someone is at the right place at the right time to make a positive difference in another person’s life. As cliché and Hallmark-esque as that might sound, sometimes going out of your way to help another can actually cost you. For one Hawaii man, it was his brand-new Bose headphones. He was on a United Airlines flight crossing over the Pacific when a female passenger suddenly went into shock from respiratory failure. Luckily, he is an MD anesthesiologist and was able to save her life until the plane reached the airport.
“She was suffering from severe hypoxemia at our cruising altitude in the setting of chronic lung disease,” the doctor explained in his post on r/mildlyinfuriating. It all happened when the flight had reached its halfway point, so he and other EMTs on board spent 2.5 hours of the rest of the trip keeping her alive. “If we hadn’t been there, she would have certainly died on the flight,” he recalled.
Once the plane landed and airport paramedics transported the woman off the plane, the man rushed back to his seat and started to grab his carry-on luggage since everyone started getting off. “In the commotion, I inadvertently left my new Bose headphones under the seat in front of me—something I never would have done if I wasn’t taking care of someone away from my seat for hours,” he said. Unfortunately, the man only realized this after getting onto his connecting flight.
As to why he posted this story on r/mildlyinfuriating, it wasn’t because he sacrificed his Bose headphones to save a woman’s life. “I can definitely afford a new pair of headphones,” he claims. It was the fact that United Airlines refused to return his headphones unless he told staff the item’s serial number, which he didn’t know. He regretted not keeping track of the number or throwing away the headphones’ box, but still: “I just want my headphones back United!!!” he exclaimed, jokingly.
Another person claiming to be a medical doctor in the post’s comment section agreed that United Airlines should have done something to compensate for saving the life of one of their passengers. “It’s crazy how much is expected of us as physicians just because we signed up for the job,” OP responds. “Because it’s our ‘Hippocratic duty’.”
The doctor did mention that United Airlines offered him “$150 flight credit that expires in a year” for what he did. However, he claims it to be “useless” considering he hardly flies with them and they are not one of the main servicing airlines where he lives.
