London - If you fall ill on a flight, you have to hope there is a doctor on board. So Dorothy Fletcher of Liverpool can count herself lucky.
When she suffered a heart attack on a transatlantic flight from Manchester to Florida in the United States, she turned out to be on a plane full of cardiologists. Fifteen experts on their way to a cardiology conference responded when a stewardess asked for medical assistance.
They stood up en masse and rushed to save Fletcher, 67. They fed drips into her arms and used an onboard medical kit to control the life-threatening attack.
The plane was diverted to North Carolina, where Fletcher was treated in the intensive care unit.
The grandmother had been travelling with her daughter to attend her daughter's wedding when she experienced acute chest pains.
Speaking from her home in Liverpool on Thursday, Fletcher recalled: "I couldn't believe what happened. All these people came rushing down the aircraft towards me. The doctors were wonderful. They saved my life.
"My daughter was with me and you can imagine how she felt when all these doctors stood up. I wish I could thank them but I have no idea who they were..."
She spent two days in the Charlotte Medical Centre after the heart attack on November 7, but managed to attend the wedding at Lake Berkeley, Kissimmee, the following week.
Her daughter, Christine Penman, 32, who married Gareth, said: "2003 was my best and almost my worst of years." - The Independent.