Dr. Mama

Here's a story from my mama about when she was on a plane, doing some emergency interpreting work. By the way, she does not speak Vietnamese, nor is she a doctor. Warning: she does say "stewardesses" rather than "flight attendant."

This happenned In 1996 , on my trip back from the Philippines. It was dark in the airplane, so it must have been nighttime where we were at that time. Most passengers were sleeping.

I heard somone say over the PA,"If there is a doctor on board, please come to the theback of the plane." Then a few minutes later I heard another announcement asking for anyone who speaks Vietnamese to go to the back of the plane. When I heard the second announcement, it appeared to me that no Vietnamese speaking person responded.Because they asked for a doctor, I assumed someone might be sick. I got up and went tothe back of the plane to see how I could help.

I found the Vietnamese woman sitting therebeing attended by an Asian male doctor who speaks English but not Vietnamese. I asked,what is the woman's problem. The doctor told me that her blood pressure was very high. Itried to talk to the woman in English, very slowly, and asked her how she was feeling. Shemotioned with her hands while speaking in Vietnamese pointing to her head and twirling her hand in front of her face.

I assumed she was feeling dizzy, so I said to her, copying the motions she made, "are you feeling dizzy?" She nodded. I touched her face and she feltvery warm and flushed. I told the doctor about it. The doctor said let's take her temperature. I took the thermometer and motioned to her that I would put thethermometer under her tongue. The doctor said he will give her an anti-hypertensive medication (from the plane's first aid cabinet). I told the woman in English, with hand motions again, of course. She appeard to have understood me so I assumed she
could understand a little bit of English.

I asked the stewardess to give me a wet washcloth and I placed it over the woman's forhead and told her to relax and I covered her eyes with the towel, as well. I stayed with her for a few minutes and while she was resting I went back to my seat. After a while it started to become daylight and I decided to check on the woman. The stewardess said she was back at her seat. I went to see her at her seat. To my amazement, she was seated next to a young Vietnamese couple. Why did they not come to help, I thought.

I asked the woman if she was travelling with somebody. She shook herhead to say "no". I said "how are you feeling?" With grimace on her face, she shook her head. I assumed she was no better. I went to the stewardess, and told her they better notify the airport and get a wheelchair and get the woman to the nearest hospital and notify the woman's relatives on the ground. Her destination was Seattle, I found out earlier. In a very short while, our plane landed in Seattle and the stewardess got the woman out of the plane first.

The funny thing was the stewardesses thought I was the doctor! No wonder they obeyed my "order".