- A nurse was on a Southwest flight when a passenger experienced a medical emergency.
- Emily Raines and her boyfriend stepped up to help and performed life-saving measures, including CPR.
A nurse and her boyfriend saved a man who'd stopped breathing while on a Southwest Airlines flight to Baltimore, reports say.
Emily Raines and Daniel Shifflett were on board a Southwest flight home when a flight attendant asked for anyone with medical experience to help with a medical emergency, CBS News reported.
The couple was flying from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore after going on a weekend cruise to the Bahamas.
Raines, an acute-care nurse at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, and her boyfriend, a former nurse, sprung into action to help the ailing passenger, who had fallen unconscious in his seat and was turning purple, CBS News reported.
"It was quite alarming, obviously, seeing his face look that way," Raines told CBS News.
"On our way up there, I was trying to pregame, like, 'Hey, if we have to do compressions, I need you to do compressions. I'll take care of everything else,'" she said of her conversation with Shifflett as they went up the aisle.
The couple performed chest compressions for 20 minutes before successfully stabilizing the passenger roughly seven minutes before landing, CBS News and WMAR-TV reported.
The couple were greeted warmly by fellow passengers, who gave them high fives after they saved the man's life, CBS reported.
The plane made an emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina, WMAR-TV reported.
Upon landing, the passenger was rushed to the hospital by emergency personnel, and it is still unclear what the medical emergency was.
"We're still not completely sure what happened. He didn't have a heart attack, but his heart stopped. They believe that multiple factors played a role, mostly due to his low oxygen levels," Raines told the outlet.
"We were amped because it's so awesome to have that feeling, and afterward, you're just like, 'Oh wow. We did this. We saved somebody's life!'" she said.
Raines later received a text message from the ill passenger's wife. The woman said her husband was "home and doing remarkably well," said Raines, The Guardian reported.
"I cannot possibly thank you enough" for saving his life, she told Raines, per The Guardian. "There are no words."