Defibrillator Helps Save Man's Life

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Being mid-flight when your heart stops sounds like a death sentence, but for one man, that's what saved his life.

Fifteen minutes into his flight, Mike UpChurch started seizing. A doctor, two ER nurses and an anesthesiologist were on the flight with Mike. But the most important addition to the flight was an Automatic External Defibrillator or AED.

"Everybody has told me had it not been for Dr. Bauman, I would probably have not made it, not made it off the plane," Mike said.

Dr. Mary Ann Bauman along with three other trained medical professionals rushed to UpChurch's aid, who in the back of the plane at the time. He wasn't breathing and was unresponsive.

"When I realized it wasn't just a seizure, I was very worried," Dr. Bauman said.

Mike's wife was worried too. She was by his side through the whole ordeal.

"There was a couple of minutes it could of in the beginning turned out very differently," Mike's wife Linda Upchurch said.

"I realize how lucky I was, I really do. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize." Mike said.

He was lucky not only to have professionals on board, but also an AED. Dr. Bauman said that's what really saved his life.

"It's really dramatic when you see somebody who doesn't have a blood pressure, doesn't have a pulse, is unresponsive and they get zapped in an airplane and then they come back," Dr. Bauman said.

"I was the luckiest man in Oklahoma at that particular moment," Mike said.

Upchurch said he plans to start living a more healthy lifestyle, and to push for AED's in his local community.

Dr. Bauman is pushing to get a bill passed in the legislature that would allow anyone to use an AED. Right now, only trained professionals can legally use the devices.