94-Year-Old Man Thanks Detroit Area Medics Who Saved His Life During Flight

Two Detroit area physiologists received a tearful thank you Wednesday from the 94-year-old man whose life they saved during an airplane flight earlier this month, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Sheryl Sebastian, 51, and Matthew Saval, 42, who both work at Henry Ford Cardiac Rehabilitation facility, came to the aid of Sam Aliotta, of Warren, who had a heart attack Sept. 6, while the flight they were on from Denver to Detroit was 37,000 feet over Milwaukee, the report stated.

READ: Check Out the Full Detroit Free Press Story for More Details

Sebastian, of Clarkston, was able to shock Aliotta’s heart with the plane’s portable defibrillator, and the physiologists monitored the man for the remaining hour of the flight, the report stated. Aliotta later had stents placed to relieve clogging around his heart, and his doctors said the cardiac event Aliotta experienced on the flight could have been fatal, the report added.

Aliotta was returning from a wedding in Denver, and Sebastian and Saval were on their way back from a heart-health conference, the report stated.