Whiskey, Hair Tie Saves Man's Life On Philly Flight

A hair tie and some whiskey reportedly saved a man’s life aboard a cross country flight from Philadelphia on Thanksgiving.

According to multiple sources, a Pennsylvania doctor used that unlikely combination to save the life of a fellow passenger on a United Airlines flight headed to San Francisco on Nov. 26.

Patricia Quinlan, a Lehigh Valley Hospital physician, not only saved the man’s life with the hair tie and whiskey from a flight attendant, she prevented an emergency landing of the United Airlines aircraft, the Morning Call reports.

It began when Quinlan noticed the man sitting next to her slump over and loose consciousness.

She went into doctor mode.

She hooked the plane’s automated external defibrillator to the 59-year-old man’s chest and noticed he had a normal heart rhythm, the Morning Call said. Then with the help of two other medical professionals that were on the flight, she began to administer intravenous fluids from the onboard medical kit, NBC10 reported.

They disinfected the needle with in-flight whiskey, while Quinlan used her hair tie as a tourniquet.

The effort was successful and the man regained consciousness—he reportedly even walked off the plane on his own when it landed in San Francisco.

Quinlan’s diagnosis? “I think he was just probably very, very dehydrated,” she told the Morning Call. “And he had taken blood pressure medicine that morning.”

As a result of her quick action to offer aid to the sick passenger, the flight crew nicknamed her “Doctor Angel,” NBC10 said.

The man was not identified but was reportedly very grateful for Quinlan’s response to his emergency.