Oneida, N.Y. — In the skies so high, people are far away from many life-saving resources down below. A former Oneida resident, who’s gone to excel in the medical field and become corporate medical director for one of the world’s largest airlines, has helped make the skies a bit safer by playing a role in making defibrillators a requirement on all air carriers.
In his recently released book, SHOCKED Life and Death 35000 Feet, Dave McKenas, MD., tells not only the story of his upbringing on Stone Street in Oneida, but also the complicated tale of how he interacted with a tough corporate world and an American government bureaucracy to pioneer a nation-wide aircraft defibrillator program.
The devices didn’t exist on any commercial air carriers in the U.S. until 1998 when McKenas used his influence as a medical expert to put this life-saving equipment on American Airlines for the first time, he said. He would later testify to Congress to get the Federal Aviation Administration to make it a requirement on airplanes across the nation.
SHOCKED also tells of the very first dramatic “resurrection” of a passenger in 1998 on a flight leaving for Mexico, just days after the defibrillator was placed on the plane. Robert Giggey, and his flight attendant rescuer, Shawn Lynn, were both “reborn” that day, according to the book’s overview. “One was given new physical life, and the other, peace, direction, and a renewed courage to live,” it continues.
Dr. McKenas is a board-certified specialist in both Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Medicine. He served as Corporate Medical Director for American Airlines from 1992 to 2002.
As an Air Force Officer, Dr. McKenas became a board-certified specialist in the unique field of Aerospace Medicine. He served as the lead aerospace medicine doctor in the Department of Defense’s Manager Space Transportation System Contingency Support [DDMS] program at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where he coordinated worldwide emergency care for NASA’s Astronauts in the event of a space shuttle catastrophe.
As an aerospace medicine flight surgeon, Dr. McKenas also received full flight training, up to the point of soloing on a T-37 jet airplane.
Upon leaving the Air Force in 1992, Dr. McKenas joined American Airlines, first as a staff physician, then, shortly thereafter, as Corporate Medical Director.
Today he practices medicine part-time with the Carrollton, TX, Fire Department, making sure firefighters are medically safe to perform their strenuous work and screening for illnesses such as cancer that can harm firefighters.
McKenas also has a life-lasting passion for music, which started in Oneida under the tutelage of music teachers Dorothy Brophy and Mayola Warner. He’s studied music composition, piano, and voice, and has performed in a professional choir and as a piano soloist and accompanist as a child. He minored in college in music but earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry before studying medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical Center and the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, MA. He still composes music to this day.
“My roots are in Oneida New York, and it’s a city I love and cherish. It all started there,” McKenas told the Dispatch.
“That’s where I started, and I know many other people have done good things coming from Oneida. This is just my story.”
To read the book about this Central New Yorker having a shocking impact on public safety, look for SHOCKED Life and Death 35000 Feet on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online booksellers.
McKenas will be visiting Oneida for a book signing at the Madison County Historical Society in Spring 2022.
Information about McKenas’ background has been taken from his personal website.
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July 29, 2021 at 02:48AM
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Read his book: Former Oneida resident helps save lives with on-board aircraft defibrillator programs - Oneida Dispatch
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