Hero Nurse Performed CPR to Dying Woman as Southwest Flight Made Emergency Landing

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

About 30 minutes after Southwest flight 1380 took off from LaGuardia airport, one of the plane's engines failed forcing an emergency landing. Shrapnel from the engine blew out a window causing the interior pressure to drop rapidly and sucked passenger Jennifer Riordan partially out the window. Passengers were able to pull the woman back into the plane and Peggy Phillips, a retired school nurse did not hesitate to jump into action when a call came for anyone who knew CPR.

"You know that there's a job to do and you put every ounce of that energy into that job. I knew I had to try to save that woman," said Phillips.

Although the plane was able to land safely at Philadelphia International Airport, unfortunately, Jennifer's injuries were too severe for her to survive.

For more on this story, go to Who is Peggy Phillips? Hero Nurse on Southwest Flight Says She "Was Just Doing What She Was Trained to Do"

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[wondern, ASN]

OMG, this is so sad!!! God bless her family. Looks like she had school age kids.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

So many heroes on that flight: Peggy Phillips who had to take off her own O2 mask to perform CPR, Tammy Jo Shults the amazing pilot who safey landed the plane, Andrew Needum the firefighter/paramedic who helped pull the woman back in and started CPR.

I'm just so glad they were able to pull the victim back in and start CPR. Even though it sounds as though the wounds would have been fatal regardless of the interventions, it seems like it would have been infinitely more traumatic if she'd just been swept away.

[OldDude]

I posted this in the School Nurse Forum...

So the reports are she and another guy performed CPR on the poor victim for 20 minutes. If you've done chest compressions in reality, you know it doesn't take very long for the sweat to start dripping off the end of your nose and you arms become like rubber bands and you are whipped in general - even switching off with someone else. Imagine doing that in the narrow aisle of an airplane!! This woman must be made of titanium!!