Girl nearly dies on Hanoi flight before doctor saves her with calcium tablet

About 15 minutes after takeoff on June 26, an urgent announcement crackled over the plane's speakers: "Is there a doctor on board? We need medical assistance."

Doctor Nguyen Van Tien, Head of Surgery Department 2 at Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, and his colleague Pham Ngoc Trung were on their way to a cancer surgery conference in Hanoi. They stood up and followed flight attendants to the back of the aircraft, where they found a girl, around 12 or 13 years old, lying weakly in her sister's arms.

She was trembling, her lips turning blue, her limbs cold and sweaty. "I can't breathe, it feels like someone is choking me," she gasped to the doctors. Her sister said she had not choked on any food or drink.

Dr. Tien immediately noticed the girl's stiff, curled fingers, a classic sign of tetany, a painful muscle spasm caused by dangerously low blood calcium levels, also known as hypocalcemia. Left untreated, it can lead to severe breathing difficulties and even cardiac arrest.

A girl suffers curled fingers, a sign of tetany which is caused by dangerously low blood calcium levels, on a flight from HCMC to Hanoi, June 26, 2025. Photo courtesy of doctors

Without hospital equipment or medication, the doctors had to think fast.

"I shouted, does anyone have effervescent calcium tablets? The kind people drink during sports?" Tien recalled.

By luck, a passenger had a tube of calcium supplements. The doctors dissolved a tablet in water and helped the girl drink it while keeping her warm and monitoring her pulse and lungs to rule out asthma.

Within minutes, her color returned, her breathing steadied, and she squeezed the doctors' hands in relief. The cabin crew moved her and the doctors to business class for easier monitoring for the rest of the flight.

When the plane landed, ground staff were ready with a stretcher to rush her to hospital care.

"It was an experience I'll never forget," Dr. Tien said afterward. "It reminded me why I chose this path: to protect life, with only my heart and two hands."