Airborne medical emergencies are fairly rare. 

Though they do happen in the real world, most folks imagining such an incident on a plane probably picture a scene out of a hospital drama, someone rushing to conduct impromptu surgery after a flight attendant frantically asks the cabin if there’s a doctor onboard.

While her encounter wasn’t quite that intense, a local physician recently did have the chance to leap into action in the middle of a flight, helping a fellow passenger in his time of need.

Keely Dayton is an advanced practice registered nurse with SSM Health at 11 South in Columbia. As a certified nurse practitioner, her area of focus is family medicine.

Recalling a flight which took place Feb. 22, Dayton spoke about how she was called into action on an otherwise normal trip.

“I was in a window seat, and someone yelled for medical personnel,” Dayton said. “I was just like, ‘What’s going on?’ and someone said, ‘There’s a guy on the ground.’”

Jumping into the aisle, Dayton joined three other physicians to attend to the man who had collapsed out of his seat with a low pulse.

They checked him out and helped him wake up after a time, seemingly doing much better.

“We did our thing, got vitals and finally got him to come back to,” Dayton said. “Got him up and drinking water, got him back into his seat. It was me and three other nurses, I believe… He seemed to be doing better, and then I get back to my seat and they yelled that it happened again.”

She recalled that the man stayed in his chair as he passed out the second time.

Dayton and the others then got him hooked up to a cardiac monitor and gave him an IV, seemingly tiding him over as the plane made an early stop given the severity of the incident and his need for further care.

Having grown up in Smithton, Dayton moved to Waterloo in 2010.

She received her bachelors degree from Saint Louis University and her nurse practitioner degree at Chamberlain University.

Her medical career started at Oak Hill, where she stayed for a time after getting her registered nurse license.

From there, she went to Memorial Hospital, working in the emergency room.

After receiving her nurse practitioner degree, she did primary care at the Mercy location in Arnold, Mo., later finding her way about two years ago to SSM Health in Columbia for a much preferred shorter commute.

While she currently practices family medicine at 11 South, Dayton also staffs the walk-in clinic there, which often has her handling patients with more acute health concerns.

It’s likely this current position as well as some of her past experience that helped her leap into action just when she needed to.

“I used to work in the ER, so it’s kind of like a second nature to just respond and do what you need to do,” Dayton said. “As someone who works in medicine, it’s almost just not even a big deal to us. You just jump in, and you do it.”