European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has recently put her medical background in practice aboard a flight when a fellow passenger needed assistance.
Returning from the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, with a layover in Zurich, it was on the last segment of her journey that President von der Leyen stepped up to help when someone else on the plane had a “health incident”.
According to Swiss paper 20 minuten, that received a statement from another passenger aboard the same plane, Swiss Airlines flight LX780 took off from Zurich at 1:17 pm on Wednesday afternoon. At some point during the flight to Brussels, cabin crew asked if there were any medical personnel onboard that could help with an issue, so von der Leyen rushed to help.
“We were actually on our way back from Rio to Brussels today when another passenger required medical assistance during the flight. As is usual in such cases, the airline’s cabin crew asked if anyone among the passengers had medical knowledge”, Arianna Podesta, deputy chief spokesperson for the EU Commission, confirmed for 20 minuten. “The President then provided assistance to the passenger in distress until we landed and medical staff took over.”
Meanwhile, the airline has also confirmed that there was indeed a medical emergency on board and that one of the passengers provided first aid. However, due to privacy reasons, President von der Leyen was not confirmed directly by the airline as the doctor on call, neither was the identity of the passenger revealed nor were any details about their medical issue disclosed,
Before getting into politics, von der Leyen had a long medical career. After graduating from the London School of Economics in 1978, she switched her attention on medicine, graduating and receiving her medical license from the Hanover Medical School in 1987, specialising in women’s health.
Until 1992, she worked as an assistant physician at the Women’s Clinic of the Hannover Medical School while also completing her doctoral studies. She defended her thesis and received her PhD in Medicine in 1991.
She became involved in local politics in the Hanover region in the late 1990s, but still continuing to follow her medical studies and career. She worked as a research assistant at the Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health System Research at the Hanover Medical School from 1998 to 2002 and obtained a Master of Public Health degree at the same institution in 2001.
