Trad sprang into action and rushed to the scene, finding a man soaked in sweat and clutching his chest in pain. The man looked at him with fear and asked, “Am I going to die?”
“Not today,” Trad calmly replied.
He immediately suspected the man was having a heart attack—an experience Trad knew all too well, having survived one himself just the year before.
Fortunately, he was prepared. Returning from a medical mission in Uganda with his nonprofit, Cura for the World, Trad had emergency medications and key medical tools on hand. Among them was a pocket-sized electrocardiogram (ECG) device—about the size of a credit card—that he never travels without since his own cardiac event.
That compact device would prove critical in assessing the man’s condition. But now, at 30,000 feet in the air, Trad had to act quickly and turn part of the aircraft into an improvised emergency room.
It was about three hours into the April 29 KLM flight to Amsterdam when the emergency unfolded.
The man, traveling with his wife, rated his chest pain as a 10 out of 10. Understandably panicked, his wife turned to Trad and asked, “Do we land right now?”
Before making any major decisions, Trad knew he had to first calm the couple, the crew, and surrounding passengers—then get to work trying to save a life in the sky.
“Our training is so thorough that it prepares us to take command of any crisis—like being the captain of a ship and keeping everyone calm,” Dr. TJ Trad said.
Trad quickly transformed a row of airplane seats into a makeshift emergency room. He laid the man down, used airplane pillows to support him, and elevated his feet to help restore blood flow to the heart.
After ruling out a blood sugar issue or a blood clot, Trad pulled out a 12-lead ECG from the medical supplies he had brought back from his mission in Uganda. The reading confirmed what he feared: signs of a heart attack. He promptly administered five medications commonly used to treat such cardiac events.
He also turned to a tool he personally relies on—a KardiaMobile card, a compact electrocardiogram device he keeps in his wallet.
While the 12-lead ECG confirmed the heart attack symptoms, the KardiaMobile card allowed Trad to monitor the man’s heart rhythm continuously over the next three hours. The patient simply pressed his thumbs on the device, which transmitted real-time data via Bluetooth to an app on Trad’s phone.
About 45 minutes after receiving medication, the man’s chest pain and heart rate began to stabilize, according to Trad.
A twist of fate
He had initially missed a scheduled trip to Uganda in February 2024 because of his health scare. The rescheduled mission led him to this very flight—where he was in the right place at exactly the right time.
At one point during the emergency, the pilot consulted with a KLM physician on the ground and asked whether the flight should divert to Tunisia.
The man remained stable for the final two hours of the flight. As the plane began its descent, his chest pain briefly returned, but additional medication quickly brought it under control, Dr. TJ Trad said.
The man’s wife later told CNN that both Trad and a nurse on board played a crucial role in keeping her husband’s condition from deteriorating, calling their efforts “unforgettable.”
During the flight, Trad sat in the jumper seat to keep the crew updated on the patient’s condition.
Once the plane landed safely at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, an ambulance was waiting to transport the man to a nearby hospital. Before parting ways, the man expressed his deep gratitude to Trad, and his wife embraced the doctor tightly.
“She told me, ‘You’re our angel in the sky,’” Trad recalled.
The man’s wife later said he was doing relatively well, all things considered. After 12 hours of hospital evaluation, doctors found no signs of a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism, she told CNN.
Trad believes his rapid response and timely treatment may have helped prevent a more serious medical outcome.
Having missed his original Uganda trip in 2024 due to his own heart attack, Trad said this experience felt like a meaningful, full-circle moment.