An Emergency that Led to Friendship: Two PAs Meet on Their Way to AAPA’s Annual Conference

Kristin Salter attended AAPA 2025 despite experiencing a medical emergency en route to Denver

July 7, 2025

By Alex Morse

On May 16, 2025, PA Kristin Salter boarded a non-stop flight with her husband in Washington D.C. They were heading to AAPA’s annual conference in Denver along with other excited PAs, including PA Brandon Beattie, an Assistant Professor at George Washington University’s PA program. Salter and Beattie met mid-flight, but Salter has no recollection of their meeting. Instead, she remembers boarding the flight and then waking up intubated in the ICU.

During the three-and-a-half-hour flight from Washington D.C. to Denver, Salter experienced two seizures and had to be rushed to the ICU upon landing. Beattie, a former neurology PA and former U.S. Army Medic, was one of two providers who responded when the call for medical personnel was announced.

The other Good Samaritan was a family medicine physician. After assessing the situation together, Beattie and the physician quickly discussed the best way to proceed. Since Beattie had more experience working in emergency situations and had a background in neurology, the physician deferred to Beattie’s expertise on the best course of action.

“As I was doing the assessments, he helped by checking vital signs,” Beattie said. “It was really nice that there were no egos. It was all focused on how to best care for Kristin [Salter].”

As Beattie tried to determine what might be causing Salter’s seizures, he wanted to check her blood sugar, but couldn’t because the blood glucose strips included in the plane’s medical bag were the incorrect kind needed for the machine. He was also hindered by the disorganization of the plane’s medical kits.

“There is nothing that shows you where things are within these bags,” he said. “As a former Army medic, my [medical bag] has labels of where everything is. [When on the plane], there was nothing that showed you where things were. I had to explode it open to find the things that I was looking for.”

Beattie was unable to check Salter’s blood sugar with the supplies on hand, so he tried a Whipple’s triad. “It was getting back to the basics and asking the flight attendants for some Coca Cola, rechecking her neurological exams, and trying to get her oriented.” When Salter went into status epilepticus, Beattie had no medications on board, so he rubbed her sternum and maintained her airway while trying to get her to regain consciousness.

After Salter’s first seizure, Beattie assessed her and didn’t see a need to divert the plane. After the second one, they were too close to Denver to do so.

When the plane landed, the airport paused operations, allowing the plane to proceed directly to the gate. Paramedics were waiting and loaded Salter into the ambulance to take her to the University of Colorado Medical Center. En route to the hospital, Salter had her third seizure.

“After I stabilized her the first time, [Salter’s husband] asked for my phone number so he could buy me a drink that night,” Beattie said. He gave out his number in hopes of receiving updates on Salter’s condition, but knew Salter and her husband would be spending the night in the ICU.

When Salter arrived at the hospital, her providers intubated her. They then ran a series of tests and scans to try and figure out what was causing her seizures, but everything came back normal.

Beattie feared that her seizures were the result of a tumor or a brain mass and was relieved when Salter’s husband gave him the update. “There is peace of mind knowing what it’s not, even if you don’t know what it is.”

Once Salter was released from the hospital, two days after being admitted, she contacted Beattie directly. To his surprise and admiration, she told him that instead of returning home like he expected, she continued with her plan of attending the conference. “She said, ‘I’m actually at an obesity session, but I’d love to meet up with you after lunch.’”

Salter was released from the hospital on Sunday and attended two sessions on that following Monday before heading back home. Presently, Salter is still undergoing tests with her care team and was able to return to work in early June.

“I remain in awe at how gracefully Kristin has handled everything. Her first course of action was to accomplish what she set out to do—attend conference sessions to hone her craft as a PA,” Beattie said. “When she returned home, she was focused and determined to do what was necessary to resume seeing her patients. While I wish our paths crossed for different reasons, I am grateful to now know her.”

Alex Morse is AAPA’s Communications Manager. She can be reached at [email protected].

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