I arrived in Helsinki just in time to watch the place I left last night, live on television.
Except here they cut away every few minutes to a poorly-lit studio where three pundits in evening attire give the Finnish take on red carpet fashions. I’m pretty sure I heard them say Cameron Diaz needs to brush her freaking hair.
But I had yet another Hollywood moment today. You see, on the LA to London leg of my flight the guy two seats behind me had a seizure.
About five hours in I heard a brief but pretty alarming sound that was a combination of choking and moaning. However in my typically useless pre-sleep state it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, plus Into the Wild was playing on my video screen where, I kid you not, it was the scene where Emile Hirsch accidentally poisons himself by eating the wrong type of wild potato.
What really jolted me awake was when the man’s limbs started flailing, which in turn woke the guy up in front of him because he was so viciously kicking his seat. At this point the poor guy started vomiting on himself, and the man seated next to him jumped up, horrified. But the man in front was totally calm and called over the flight attendant. When I heard the “is there a doctor on the plane” announcement over the PA, I was having some serious Airplane flashbacks—have you ever heard anything like that happen in real life?—but sure enough three doctors rushed to his side (all from the very front of the plane, I might add).
Although he was unconscious the guy seemed to be breathing normally, but without knowing his medical history, they didn’t know if it was an emergency situation. The attendant went to get permission to land in Halifax, supposedly our last chance until London (I guess they’re not so accommodating in Reykjavik). With 10 minutes left to decide if we’d need to land or not, the guy came around and was able to answer basic questions, including whether or not he’d taken the anti-seizure medication they’d found in his bag (he had taken it, but the doctors thought the drink he had on the plane might have triggered the seizure). Crisis averted, but for about 45 minutes, it was a surreal and tense situation at 50,000 feet. Also, it felt exactly like that one episode of House where he has to make the call in the air!
So I made it, and what a treat arriving here is: The Helsinki airport is gor-geous. It’s this transparent jewel box of spotless silver and glass that’s super slick but, this being Scandinavia, there’s plenty of blond wood to keep it nice and warm. I was going to take some photos but then I decided it would probably be even prettier in the daytime. Which, incidentally, will be be rolling around here in a few hours, so I should probably try to get some sleep. Oh, wait, I’ll just watch the Oscars, that should do the trick. Hyvää yötä!
Update: Wow, this is kinda crazy, but American Airlines is taking major heat for a passenger dying on board Sunday during a flight from Haiti to New York. That’s really weird that two flights on the same airline were facing similar judgment calls on the same day, but for the record, I think the crew on my flight did a great job of realizing the gravity of the situation and doing everything they could to help.
