Two sisters help save unresponsive woman on flight from Boston to Florida

Firefighter and Paramedic Lindsay Byrne (left) and her sister Nurse Nicole Kelly (right) helped save a woman who became unresponsive on a flight from Boston to Fort Meyers last week.Wayland Fire Department/Courtesy Photo: Wayland Fire Department

Two sisters, one a Wayland firefighter/paramedic and the other a Burlington nurse, helped save an unconscious woman suffering from an apparent diabetic emergency during a flight from Logan Airport to Florida, according to the Wayland Fire Department.

Lindsay Byrne, and her sister, Nicole Kelly, a nurse at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, were on a Jet Blue fight traveling to Fort Meyers together on Aug. 1, Wayland Fire Chief Neil McPherson said in a statement Friday.

When flight attendants requested help from anyone with a medical background over the plane’s intercom, Byrne, Kelly and a firefighter from Florida “sprung into action,” according to McPherson.

The trio found an unconscious woman inside the airplane bathroom who was having trouble breathing with grayish-blue skin and a faint pulse, the statement said. They determined she was having a diabetic emergency.

They sat the woman up to clear her airway and fed her sugar packets, which helped her to regain consciousness.

When the plane landed in Fort Myers , the woman was transported by ambulance to a hospital.

“Seeing this training and professionalism kick into action beyond our small community and in an environment with limited resources is a proud moment for the department that made a difference in someone’s life,” McPherson said in the statement.

Byrne has been a member of the Wayland Fire Department for four years, according to the statement.