“They sterilised their equipment in cognac, and began surgery by making an incision in the patient’s chest, but with no surgical clamps available, Wong had to hold the incision open with a knife and fork while Wallace inserted the catheter.”
A passenger on a 1995 British Airways flight from Hong Kong had a punctured lung building pressure in her chest. Landing in Delhi was ruled out because the descent itself could have killed her. Two doctors operated in the air with a coat hanger, cognac and the cabin cutlery. She lived.