About 10 years ago, my wife and I were in a plane bound for Sydney. Our
seats were separated by the aisle. The plane was scheduled to land at the
Cairns Airport first and then to fly on to Sydney.
After three hours or so had passed after taking off, a flight attendant came to
me and said, “Excuse me, but your wife fainted and is lying down on the floor
in front of the toilet.”
Surprised, I rushed through the aisle and found my wife lying on her
back. Her cheeks and lips were pale. She looked as if she had been struck by lightning.
She was trembling and gasping for air. Her eyes were closed. When I called her
name, she half opened her eyes, but they were white. When I slapped her cheek,
her consciousness seemed to return to her.
“I am cold,” she said.
I took off my coat and put it on her and asked the attendant for some
blankets. I tried to sit her up with my arms, but when she sat up halfway, she
swooned and her eyes turned white. She looked llike she was in pain. I gave up trying to sit her
upright.
It would take three more hours before the plane reached the Cairns Airport.
After a while, the flight attendant came back with blankets and said:
“I am sorry to say, but all the seats, including the first class ones, are
full. So we cannot arrange three seats where she can lie down.”
That meant that my wife had to stay lying down on the cold floor for three
more hours. The flight attendant covered her with the blankets, took off her
uniform coat, and put it on them. The passengers near us looked anxious. I felt
sorry for them to have ruined their pleasant flight.
My wife’s face continued to be pale. Sometimes she looked unconscious.
Whenever I called her name, she seemed to have heard me and tried to open her
eyes but whenever they opened, they were white. I thought she might die before
the plane reached Cairns. The scene of her funeral ran through my mind.
I sat beside her doing nothing but only watching her for the next three
hours. At long last, the plane was nearing the airport. All the passengers had
to fasten their seat belts, but my wife could not even sit up. If she had to be
fastened with a seat belt, she must lie on three consecutive seats, but there
was no empty seat. The plane was coming near the airport. The
fasten-your-seat-belt announcement was heard. Then the attendant told the three
passengers nearest my wife to move to the special seats on which the flight
attendants sat during taking offs and landings. They emptied their seats. Two
attendants and I moved my wife’s body to the seats and lay her on her back. The
attendant fastened her body with the three seat belts. I returned to my seat and
fastened the belt.
The plane landed and passengers began to get out of the plane through the
front door. A custom officer and a doctor came to us. I showed our passports to
him. The flight attendant then brought a wheel chair and managed to sit my wife
on it though she hated to do so. They quickly pushed the chair through the
aisle to the back door. I grabbed the baggage and followed it.
When the door opened, I saw in front of me a large iron plate about 1.5
square meters in the dark night. I thought it was used for cargo. They pushed
the wheel chair onto the plate and I stepped onto it. It began to lower
gradually until it stopped before an ambulance. She was carried into it. I sat
at the front passenger seat. The vehicle ran with the headlights illuminating
the countryside road and the siren blaring in the Cairn’s night.
Later in the hospital, my wife said that although she was a poor drinker
she had drunk a bottle of wine in the plane to go to sleep as soon as possible
because the neighboring young couple had been too intimate.
(I thank everyone who helped my wife, including the airline company, the pilot, the flight attendants, the three passengers, the airport staff, the ambulance crew, and the hospital staff).
