Dr. VDL to the rescue: Commission president assists passenger in mid-flight emergency

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a trained medical doctor, put her skills to use mid-flight on Wednesday after a passenger suffered an emergency during her return to Brussels from the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

The Commission president stepped in to provide medical assistance to a passenger who “needed medical attention,” after airline staff called for help on a flight from Zurich to Brussels, Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta confirmed.

“As happens in these cases, the airline personnel onboard asked if any passenger had medical knowledge,” Podesta said. “The president therefore assisted the passenger in need until we landed, when medical personnel took over.”

Before her political career, von der Leyen worked as a medical professional, practicing first as an assistant physician before graduating from the Hanover Medical School as a doctor of medicine.

Swiss paper 20 minuten was the first to report the incident.