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Last Updated: Friday, 2 January, 2004, 07:52 GMT
Gran's heart attack on jet with medics
Dorothy Fletcher
Mrs Fletcher was travelling to her daughter's wedding
A grandmother who suffered a heart attack on a plane could not have wished for better care.

When the stewardess put out the call: "Is there a doctor on the plane", 15 cardiologists stood up to help 67-year-old Dorothy Fletcher.

The doctors were en route to Orlando for a heart conference.

Mrs Fletcher, who comes from Liverpool, was on the flight to go to her daughter's wedding in Florida.

"The doctors were wonderful. They saved my life," she said.

I can't believe there were so many doctors - never mind cardiologists - on a plane
Dorothy Fletcher

"I wish I could thank them but I have no idea who they were, other than that they were going to a conference in Orlando."

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she added: "I realised I was having a heart attack.

"I had a terrible pain in my back, across my chest and down my arm. I was sweating profusely and vomiting."

She had no idea there were so many doctors on the plane.

"I only realised when they said is there a doctor on board and all the lights above their heads began lighting up and they all came running towards me.

"I can't believe there were so many doctors - never mind cardiologists - on a plane.

"It was so frightening. I had never experienced a heart attack. But to see so many people helping me took the fright away."

'We're losing her'

But at one point one of the doctors thought she might die.

"I heard a voice saying, 'I think we're losing her' and I wanted to tell them I wasn't dead," she said.

"But another doctor then said he had found a pulse."

The plane landed in North Carolina and Mrs Fletcher spent two days in intensive care at the Charlotte Medical Centre after the heart attack on 7 November.

She then spent three days on a normal ward, but still managed to attend daughter Christine's wedding.




WATCH AND LISTEN
Dorothy Fletcher
"I couldn't believe that there were so many doctors on the plane"



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