The life of a woman saved with a defibrillator on a Binter flight from Gran Canaria to La Palma

Thanks to the use of a semi-automatic defibrillator that was on the ATR72-600 plane registered EC-MTQ, the Binter Canarias crew managed to recover the passenger from a cardiorespiratory arrest.

On 23 June 2023, the cabin crew of Binter flight NT313 that linked the islands of Gran Canaria and La Palma were able to recover a passenger from a cardiorespiratory arrest thanks to the use of a semiautomatic defibrillator (DESA).

As reported by the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, this first assistance was vital in order to save the life of the woman while the aircraft immediately returned to its departure airport Gran Canaria.

The events took place minutes after takeoff from Gran Canaria, when the 112 emergency phone number received a call explaining that a flight had to return to the airport of origin due to a health emergency, for which a health coordinator from the Canary Islands Emergency Service (Servicio de Urgencias Canario – SUC) gave the appropriate instructions to the crew.

A female passenger began suffering from chest pains shortly after the Binter flight took off from Gran Canaria. Thus, the flight attendants, thanks to training in first aid and in the use of the defibrillator, monitored the woman and applied the defibrillator, which advised performing an electric shock, saving the passenger’s life.

With this information and in view of the situation described, the SUC notified the Insular University Hospital of Gran Canaria and activated a medicalised ambulance for its assistance at the foot of the airport runway.

Once recovered from the cardiorespiratory arrest, the ambulance crew continued to stabilise the patient during the journey until she was admitted to the hospital.

It is the first time in the Canary Islands that a regular passenger airline performs such a defibrillation in the event of an emergency of this type.

Source: La Provincia, Controladores Aereos, Flightradar24