A California man is calling three Bay area nurses heroes after they saved his life on board an airplane.
Cassidy Orvik, Jessica Adey and Emily Goodyear were leaving Los Angeles Sunday when a male passenger had a medical emergency.
All three jumped out of their seats to help.
“There was no hesitation on any of our parts,” Goodyear said.
“We knew this was what we were put here for,” Adey said.
“It’s what we are trained to do,” Orvik added.
The nurses gave the man, 56-year-old Gregory Gam, oxygen, started an IV and monitored his vitals for the next few hours. But just before the plane landed in Atlanta, Gam collapsed and didn’t have a pulse.
Orvik, Adey and Goodyear sprang into action again.
“[Cassidy] held his head to stabilize it,” Adey said. “Emily and I somehow lifted him over, call it adrenaline, call it whatever you want.”
“The two of them lifted a 250 pound man over the seat and into the aisle,” Orvik said.
They did CPR and got Gam breathing again until they were back on the ground. Gam was rushed to an Atlanta hospital where he stayed for three days.
“They are angels and I was very lucky that they were on this flight,” Gam said.
But the nurses said they were just doing their jobs.
“We are blessed just to be able to serve another person in those unconventional circumstances, but more importantly knowing he is going to wake up with his family another day,” Adey said.
Doctors have cleared Gam to fly back to his home in California on Thursday. He said he plans on coming to Tampa to thank the three nurses in person.
