Advocate Publishers Howard and Corinne Copelan returned safely to West Wendover last Friday after surviving a heart attack while flying back from a visit with their children and grandchildren in Israel.
Mr. Copelan suffered what was later confirmed as a heart attack while flying over the Mediterranean Sea four hours into the return trip to the United States. The plane made an emergency landing in Barcelona, Spain where Copelan and his wife were taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
“Although our recollections of the flight are a bit hazy… I do remember noticing that the air in the airplane cabin was particularly thin even for an international flight.” Copelan wrote in a Facebook post in Spain. “In the lavatory it was even worse- no air at all. After a visit to the facility we felt faint and asked for some oxygen we sat down. A passenger/doctor named Shirit noticed us and asked us if she could help. The steward gave her the plane blood pressure cuffed which broke while she was checking us. We continued sucking on oxygen but were told there was only a limited supply enough to get us over the Atlantic. That is when I had our first major chest pain. I had to go to the lavatory again and again there was no air. As I walked back to our seat it suddenly felt like a baby elephant jumped on my chest. I think I kind of fell to my seat and remember panicking when they took my oxygen away. Lots of people were talking and it got through to me that the plane was making an emergency landing in Barcelona and I wondered who was the poor schmuck in so much trouble?…”
While Mr. Copelan was being stabilized in the ambulance, Mrs. Copelan cleared customs and the couple were taken to the Hospital de Bellvitge in Barcelona. The Advocate publisher spent two days in the emergency ward and two following days in the hospitals cardio ward before being released and allowed to go home.
The Copelans were in Israel to visit their children and grandchildren as well as deliver several video gaming systems and games donated to the children of the rocket beleaguered town of Netivot, Israel by Elko businesswoman Jeni-Lei Powell.
“In hindsight we probably shouldn’t have gone,” Copelan said. “But when rockets are being fired at your children and grandsons and you have a son called up to the reserves logic flies out the window.”
