Ulysses Johnson, III, PhD(c), MSN, CRNA, was returning home to New York from a Diversity in Nurse Anesthesia event in Chicago a few summers ago. When he boarded the flight, he never could have imagined what would happen next.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be traveling that day, but my flight the previous day had been canceled,” Johnson said. “I was in the right place at the right time.”
He was asleep and listening to music through his headphones, yet he heard sounds of distress from the front of the plane about 30 minutes after takeoff.
“I heard ‘Grab the AED!’ I thought I was dreaming about work, then I opened my eyes to see all the commotion,” he said.
As a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), Johnson knew he was trained for this moment and he could help. CRNAs, also known as nurse anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists, are highly trained and qualified advanced practice nurses who safely administer more than 58 million anesthetics to patients each year in the United States. Their backgrounds as critical care nurses make them uniquely suited to caring for patients in their most vulnerable and urgent times of need and staying with them from the beginning of a procedure to the very end.
“I ran to the front of the plane and introduced myself as a nurse anesthetist. I asked how I could help, and the flight attendant said, ‘We already have a doctor here. You can go have a seat,’” he recounted. “I turned around to go, but then I saw the top of the passenger’s head. He was blue, and something was wrong.”
Johnson immediately knew that meant the passenger wasn’t exchanging oxygen. The man also appeared to be agonal breathing. “I demanded that the crew get him on the ground and start CPR.”
The physician began doing compressions, and Johnson kept the passenger’s airway open while the flight attendants located a first aid kit. The flight attendants provided an AED, and the passenger was shocked twice.
“The passenger was cyanotic from the flank up, so I was thinking he had a clot and needed a rescue breath,” Johnson said. “He wasn’t exchanging oxygen, and we didn’t have a pulse. Ater the second shock, we got his pulse back, but he still wasn’t breathing much.”
A trauma nurse approached to help and gave the passenger a rescue breath while the others continued compressions for five to 10 minutes.
“The man finally started responding. He was very disoriented, but at that point we went from essentially having a dead body on our hands to getting him back,” Johnson said.
Afterward, the physician – who happened to be a physician anesthesiologist – congratulated Johnson on his efforts.
“I told him this is what I do every day. Every beat, every breath, every minute, CRNAs are there, whether it’s in the air or in the OR.”
The plane turned around and landed back in Chicago so the passenger could receive immediate medical attention. Johnson said while the situation was unfortunate, he was grateful he could utilize the training and skills he’s developed after 19 years as a nurse and five years as a CRNA.
“CRNAs’ background in nursing is what sets us apart, and I’m proud to say I’m a nurse. My philosophy is always to care with confidence and practice with patience. That’s rooted in my years of experience as a critical care nurse.”
Once the commotion had subsided and it was time to deplane, Johnson briefly noticed a famous face: TV talk show host Sherri Shepherd. “She was two rows up from where I’d been caring for the passenger, and she was praying. I didn’t think anything of it until I shared about the event on social media, and she responded to my post.”
The Sherri show producers messaged Johnson about sharing the story on TV. While he gave them the flight information, the producers were unable to find the passenger from the flight.
“I wanted to follow up with the passenger to see how he did afterward, but nothing came of those messages with the producers until recently.”
Shepherd’s assistant invited Johnson to attend a show taping, and he assumed the offer was just to be an audience member. He was shocked when, at the beginning of the show, Shepherd began talking about her experience on the flight and how “somebody special was in the audience.”
“I realized she was talking about me. I was not prepared. It was a total surprise, but I appreciated the shoutout and the chance to connect with more people about the amazing things we’re doing for patients as advanced practice nurses,” Johnson said. “I was so grateful to have helped that man on the plane. And I’m very proud of what my colleagues and I do every day.”
