SALT LAKE CITY (KTVX) - On Oct. 1, Scott McCulloch found himself facing a medical emergency on board a Delta flight to Salt Lake City.
McCulloch was traveling to Billings, Mont. on a connecting flight through Salt Lake when he recognized that something was off.
“Something just didn’t seem right. I felt this pain run right across the back of my shoulders and down my left arm and I knew what was going on,” he said in a video released by Delta.
35,000 feet off the ground, McCulloch was in the beginning stages of a heart attack.
Shayna Huertas, Rachel Westmoreland, and Bethany Butcher were the three flight attendants who came to his rescue.
“Your training automatically just kicks in. It’s almost like muscle memory, you just automatically know what to do,” Westmoreland said.
“I could see it in her eyes that ... moment of shock, but then she got right to work,” McCulloch recalled.
The women administered aspirin and nitroglycerin while simultaneously calming passengers.
Luckily, medical professionals on board came forward after learning what was going on.
“The gal sitting in the front row, I don’t even think she got up, I think she crawled across to me and said ‘I’m a life-flight nurse,’ and I said, ‘That’s a pretty good thing,’” McCulloch shared.
After gathering all the facts and gaining control of the situation, the flight attendants relayed the information to the pilots, who called air traffic control and arranged for paramedics to meet McCulloch in Salt Lake.
Following their arrival, McCulloch was then “off to the hospital and ICU where they put one stent in my main right artery they said was 95 to 100 percent blocked.”
Reflecting on his experience, McCulloch shared, “That day up there, it drastically changed my life, so I’d like to thank everyone – every one of you, for the way you all reacted, the way you all pitched in.”
McCulloch was granted the opportunity to reunite with the three flight attendants after writing an email to Delta CEO, Ed Bastian, asking for his help in properly thanking those who saved his life. The homecoming was captured in a short film Delta shared in a Tweet.
McCulloch emphasized his newfound devotion to the airline, joking, “I’m Delta for life, that’s the way I sign off my emails now.”
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