Mohammed Nadershah OMFS 11’s Heroics Save Life on Transatlantic Flight

Mohammed Nadershah OMFS 11 was recently a passenger on a Lufthansa Boston to Frankfurt, Germany transatlantic flight when disaster struck. An announcement came through the cabin asking for any doctors on board to help with a medical emergency. Armed with the experience he had gained as a resident in the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Program, Dr. Nadershah made his way to just outside the plane’s lavatory where he encountered a 20-year-old female who had been vomiting and hyperventilating and then had passed out.

At this point the flight was over the Atlantic Ocean. If Dr. Nadershah was not able to resuscitate and stabilize the girl, the pilots would have to turn the plane around or divert to another airport, but the closest one was over an hour away.

Dr. Nadershah, thinking quickly, started basic life support and then with the help of the only other doctor on board—a German psychologist—located the correct medication in the plane’s medical kit (the labels were printed in German), started an IV line, and gave the girl medication for vomiting. The girl recovered and the flight was able to continue on to Frankfurt. As Dr. Nadershah later learned, the girl—a student at Tufts University—was suffering from food poisoning. She had become severely dehydrated and had gone into shock.

The girl was extremely grateful to Dr. Nadershah for saving her life and the plane’s crew was so thankful they upgraded him to first-class.