'I saved a woman’s life on an airplane and lost my new Bose headphones because of it.' UPDATED
"I saved a woman’s life on an airplane and lost my new Bose headphones because of it."
I’m an MD anesthesiologist and was on a trans-Pacific flight when a woman on the other side of our airplane went into respiratory failure. She was suffering from severe hypoxemia at our cruising altitude in the setting of chronic lung disease.
Long story short, she ended up completely losing consciousness and she stopped breathing for a short while, so myself and a couple EMTs had to physically carry her to the emergency exit aisle and perform lifesaving measures on her for just over 2.5 hours, as we were almost at the exact midpoint in our flight.
In the end she regained consciousness and we safely transferred her to paramedics at the receiving airport, but we were physically breathing for her for the entire 2.5 hours she was in our care. If we hadn’t been there, she would have certainly died on the flight.
At the end of the flight, immediately after we handed off care to the paramedics, the flight crew started deplaning passengers. I hadn’t been at my seat for the last 2.5 hours so I had to rush back and hurriedly pack my belongings amongst the crowd of passengers.
In the commotion, I inadvertently left my new Bose headphones under the seat in front of me—something I never would have done if I wasn’t taking care of someone away from my seat for hours. I didn’t discover they were missing until we were already on our connecting flight.
After multiple phone calls and emails with [removed] Airlines, they have informed me they can’t locate my exact pair of headphones without a serial number (which I cannot provide) because they have too many pairs of lost Bose headphones, and there is nothing else they can do…so I am out a new pair of headphones.
Tagging as mildly infuriating because obviously it is my fault that I left the headphones and I don’t have the serial number to locate my specific pair. Also, I can definitely afford a new pair of headphones.
However, the fact that they have multiple pairs of headphones at the airport and they can’t return any of them to the owners without a serial number, and also the fact that this situation only happened because I volunteered to care for this woman, I think classifies it as a mildly infuriating first world problem. Thanks for listening to my rant haha. I just want my headphones back [removed]!!!
OP added in the comments:
She regained consciousness after about 20 minutes of assisted ventilation with an ambu bag and some IM epi. Pretty sure she had a stroke in the process though as she stopped moving her left arm and leg toward the end of the flight.
I had to continue assist ventilating her for the following 2 hours because she was very old, had poor respiratory effort, and her pulse ox never read above 85% the rest of the flight
Here's what people had to say to OP:
Thank you for saving a life! Don’t they even tag the items for which flight they were lost on? Seems that would make it easy to return things to people.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Right??? Apparently not. They just said they have a collection of lost items at the airport lost and found that is then shipped to [removed] headquarters if it’s not claimed in a certain amount of time.
Who on earth is EVER going to just RANDOMLY have their headphones whole a$# serial number memorized?? Good globe ffs the flight number and color of the headphones should suffice!!!
Oh thank goodness. I thought I was going to read a rant of another passenger stealing your headphones while you were off doing a GREAT deed for someone else. This one is just forgetting something but the airline company being shitty about it.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Lol I think that story would belong somewhere else besides mildly infuriating
I can relate! A man once had a stroke in the car ahead of me and drove his car up into a lawn. I got in his car to pull him out to attempt CPR while the ambulance was on the way, and lost my very expensive brand new prescription sunglasses in the back seat. Pretty sure he didn't survive, so I feel guilty for even worrying about my glasses.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Wow that is eerily so similar! This is why Reddit is the best, you can find people with shared experiences. Thanks for commenting! And good on you for taking action!
Any chance you still have the box it came in? Maybe the serial number is on there? 🤞
I believe Bose also has the serial number in their app if OP registered it there. Thats what I did when I lost some Bose earbuds on a plane.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Learned that from Elpheba
You have my sympathies, I saved someone from drowning in lake Michigan years and years ago, they were out way too far as a storm was coming in and clearly couldn’t handle it.
My old lifeguard instinct kicked in and I swam out there to pull them back into shore… without emptying my shorts pockets. Lost my wallet, ID, debit and credit cards, house keys, and cash. Didn’t even get a thank you from the guy. No good deed goes unpunished.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Omg that is way worse!!!! And you were a total hero!!! Thank you for sharing
The next day later OP posted this update:
I never expected my post yesterday to get as many views as it did, and I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all the kind people who had stories to share and different perspectives on my mildly infuriating situation!
As a result of the post, someone from Bose headquarters reached out and offered to send me a new pair of headphones. I’m really impressed that they even cared enough to do that, and they have definitely earned a customer for life. Kudos to Bose for being so cool about it after [removed] Airlines customer service just left me hanging!
Again, thanks for all the kind words! I enjoyed reading all the comments and had many good laughs. Just to clarify, I was very happy to help save this woman’s life, and I would 100% choose to do it again every time if it meant losing the headphones.
The headphones are not a huge deal, which is why it seemed appropriate for this sub, as losing them after such a long and arduous ordeal only to have [removed] Airlines bounce me around was indeed MILDLY infuriating. I am aware that I can afford new headphones haha…that was not the point of the post.
And to all the crazy people who called me a liar, ChatGPT, egotistical, a narcissist, a karma farmer, and lastly the random psychopath that PM’ed me and told me to burn in hell for making up lies…..I hope you are nicer to your anesthesiologist when you inevitably need their help in real life, because they have your life in their hands and they deserve your respect and gratitude. Cheers!
(Oh and P.S. I read and tried all of your suggestions to find my serial number and I was totally unsuccessful. Will be registering my electronics from now on!)
Here's what people had to say after the update:
My mom was a surgical nurse in a forward evac hospital in Vietnam. She worked in medical for 35 years. When I was around age 12, a kid down the street was on his bike and got ran over by someone and was pinned under their Oldsmobile. It was a pretty terrifying situation. Neighbors were coming out to see what all the screaming was about. My mom was very cool and collected.
She calmly told me to run get my dad's floor jack, she told my brother to get the emergency medical bag she had and an oxygen tank she kept in the coat closet. She asked a neighbor to find a board or plank or something. We got him out, unconscious, by pulling him out from under the car on a piece of plywood.
By the time the ambulance got there, mom had him on oxygen. She was telling the EMTs his vitals that she had. She rode with him to the hospital. He had a lot of head trauma but he survived. My mom is very cool lady.
My anesthesiologist saved my life when I had a c section go horribly wrong horribly fast. He sat beside me for hours and monitored my recovery. His schedule for the day was canceled. They are unsung heroes for sure. Glad to hear Bose backed you up.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Wow that sounds so scary!!! I’m glad you had a good one to stay by your side through such a stressful time!
That's awesome. Though I am left wondering why [removed] wouldn't let you show up and prove which headphones are yours by letting your phone connect to them haha.
Darth_Poopie OP:
I’m sure they would have, but the items were recovered at the airport where my layover was. I have no plans to return to that airport any time in the near future 😕
I didn't comment on your first post, but I'm happy to do so today in order to say congratulations! Thanks for your lifesaving work, kudos to Bose, and carry on being awesome.
Darth_Poopie OP:
Thanks for the kind words friend!
"we were physically breathing for her for the entire 2.5 hours she was in our care. If we hadn’t been there, she would have certainly died on the flight."
Insane, OOP and his comrades deserves more than a new set of headphones