Living with heart at 30,000 feet

When Tara White joined Solventum a year ago, she brought with her nearly 25 years of experience as a trauma and critical care nurse. Today she leads Solventum’s global IV site management market development team. Recently, on her first international trip with our company, Tara found herself using her nursing expertise in an unexpected and urgent setting: aboard a commercial flight.

While on the way to a team kickoff meeting in South America, a call came over the intercom. A passenger was in medical distress, and the flight crew asked if there was a healthcare professional on board. Tara stepped forward to find an unresponsive man with his distraught wife by his side.

Tara quickly requested the plane’s first aid kit, only to discover that it was poorly organized and missing critical supplies. The blood pressure monitor had no battery, there was no way to check blood sugar, and basic IV supplies, like needles and a tourniquet, were absent. “I found myself in quite an uncomfortable predicament,” she remembers.

Drawing on her emergency medicine background, Tara improvised. She used a seatbelt as a tourniquet and rigged an IV bag to the overhead bin with a coat hook. She monitored the man’s condition using defibrillator pads as a makeshift solution. “We were able to improvise as a team and really get him the basic care and resuscitation he so desperately needed in the moment,” she says.

Fortunately, Tara had also packed her personal emergency kit, which provided some of the missing essentials. By the time the plane landed, the passenger had regained consciousness and was able to speak with his wife.

Reflecting on the experience, Tara says it reinforced why she became a nurse — and why she joined our Solventum team. “For me, being a nurse isn’t just a job. It’s a drive to be there for people in their most vulnerable moments,” she says. One of Solventum’s core values, living with heart, resonates deeply with Tara. “Living with heart is the foundation of who I am, and it’s why I believe so strongly in changing the world for the better.”