East Brunswick Nurse Saves Woman's Life On Plane

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Courtney Donlon only started working as a nurse nine months ago. But this 22-year-old East Brunswick native sprang into action and saved the life of a woman having a heart attack Monday morning aboard a JetBlue flight. She even convinced the pilot to make an emergency landing in South Carolina.

Donlon started working as a nurse in the Respiratory Care Unit at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick last September. She's a graduate of East Brunswick High School. At 7:30 a.m. Monday, Donlon was on board a JetBlue flight headed back to New Jersey from Fort Lauderdale. While they were in the air, an announcement came over the loudspeaker, asking if there were any medical professionals aboard. A 57-year-old female passenger had shooting pains up and down her neck and arm.

Donlon had been sleeping. She was coming back from a week-long vacation and she was with some friends, all fellow nurses, Valentina Centeno, who works at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway and Shannon Scariff, who works at Hackensack University Medical Center. "I stood up and went over to the flight attendant. As soon as I identified myself as a nurse, they let me start assessing the woman," she told MyCentralJersey.com.

The woman said she was experiencing pain that went up her left arm up her neck and down her shoulder blade. She had fallen asleep as the 6:30 a.m. flight took off, but woke up to the searing pain and shortness of breath.

"That's really characteristic of a myocardial infarction — a heart attack — in women," Donlon said.

There was a defibrillator on the plane, but Donlon knew she didn't need to use it. However, what the plane didn't have was aspirin.

Donlon told the crew that "this was a serious emergency," and they needed to get aspirin from the other passengers.

That aspirin likely saved the woman's life.

"As soon as they made the announcement, people were so helpful, jumping up and looking in their makeup bags and pill pouches to get the aspirin she needed. And she chewed it as it would make it act faster."

Donlon said the pain would ebb and flow for the woman and she just wanted to keep her calm. "I developed a rapport and was joking with her because as soon as you get stressed your heart rate and breathing rate goes up," she said.

She asked a fellow nurse to keep an eye on her and then went to speak to the captain. She told him he needed to land the plane immediately. He landed the plane within 20 minutes in Charleston, South Carolina, and the woman was rushed to a nearby medical facility.

"I got off the plane and onto the tarmac with her. She was nervous," Donlon told MyCentralJersey. "I gave a report to the paramedics. She asked me to get off with her and hold her hand until she was with the paramedics."

Donlon eventually did make it back to New Jersey. She has not heard from the woman and doesn't know how she's doing. But she hopes they can reconnect.

"Maybe she will reach out to me," she told the newspaper. "I'm going to give it some time before I reach out because her condition was very serious and I want to make sure she can rest comfortably."

"I can't lie — I was nervous at first being on a plane with limited supplies, but once I realized I was the most qualified person on the plane and someone had to be the confident one, then I could take to the role pretty easily."

Photos provided to Patch by Peter Haigney/RWJUH