I understand why my parents still worry about me, even though I’ve been out of their household for more than 20 years! On a recent flight, I was two seats away from a young woman who had a seizure just as our plane pulled away from our gate. A Southwest flight attendant immediately attended to the passenger in need and asked the line no one likes to hear on an airplane “Is there a doctor on board?”
Her seizure subsided by the time the doctor (a passenger all the way up front) made her way back to our row. The other flight attendants stayed calm and all of the attention went to comforting the passenger who just endured what we think was her first seizure. She didn’t know the year or the month, and within several minutes, paramedics were on board to carefully take her off the plane and to a nearby hospital. She was in the right place at the right time, despite the scary circumstances, we were still on the ground, and she was able to receive the care she needed promptly.
As a mom, however, all I could think about was “someone needs to call her parents!” But, we have to realize we can’t always be in the right place at the right time to help our children through every difficult moment in their life. Fortunately, however, there will be others who will step up in our place. In this case, it was the Southwest attendants, the woman who courageously volunteered and applied her medical skills without hesitation, and all of the other passengers on the flight who stayed calm, patient and who just wanted the woman to feel better and receive the medical attention she needed.
It was a humbling moment to witness all of the immediate care, support, sincere concern and offers to help from everyone around the woman in need. Letting go of the worry of a parent is a lifelong skill, and I had a big lesson in that on this particular day.
