CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati firefighter stepped up on a flight out of CVG when another passenger was experiencing a medical emergency.

Part of the way through the flight from Cincinnati to Salt Lake City, passengers started to notice another passenger needed help.

“It was clear that there was someone in distress. The flight attendants were asking around if there was anyone who had medical help,” another passenger on the plane, Blake Taylor, said.

A few rows in front of Taylor, another passenger had already taken charge of the situation.

"Once the flight attendants started going through their motions and their protocols, they brought me a medical bag that had everything I needed, there was a nurse there that was helping out," Kenny Christo said.

He's a Cincinnati firefighter and EMT at Station 23 in East Walnut Hills.

Christo was able to assess the passenger, get an IV started and monitor her until the plane landed and local EMTs took over.

"It happened very calmly, very efficiently and really impressive," Taylor said.

Christo said by the time he got on his connecting flight out of Salt Lake City, the woman was conscious and talking.

This isn't the first time he's stepped in to help someone when he's off the clock.

"It's just what we do. Especially Cincinnati firefighters. We're always on the ready, we're always there to help out," Christo said.

He said most of the time, firefighters in a situation like this are happy to help. They do what they can to make sure the stranger in need is okay, then do exactly what Christo did: turn around and go about their day, not looking for any credit.

An EMT who performed CPR on a fellow passenger who had a medical emergency onboard earlier this month, and later died from COVID-19, says he was just notified by his health department about his possible exposure - 10 days after the flight.

Tony Adalpa was on the Dec. 14 United flight from Orlando to Los Angeles, when a man became ill. Adalpa, trained as an EMT, began helping the man, identified as 69-year-old Isais Hernandez, along with flight attendants and others onboard. Adalpa says he performed CPR for about 45 minutes, and stayed near Hernandez as the plane made an early landing in New Orleans and Hernandez was taken to the hospital.

Hernandez died, and the coroner reported the cause of death was COVID-19.

United at the time believed he had suffered cardiac arrest and continued on to LAX. Adalpa took to Twitter to talk about the incident, and that he was feeling symptoms of COVID-19 about a week after the flight. He has reportedly taken multiple COVID-19 tests, with negative results.

On Sunday, December 27, Adalpa tweeted he was contacted by his health department.

“The whole world knows I was exposed and it took the County 10 days to notify me. I haven't heard anything from @CDCgov ... there's still people form the flight that haven't heard from anyone at all!(sic)” Adalpa tweeted.

His tweet shared an animated video made by the CDC that talked about contact tracing.

Other passengers on the Dec. 14 flight are being contacted by Los Angeles County health officials, according to KABC in Los Angeles.

United Airlines said they were working with the CDC on providing information about the flight and passengers, “so they can work with local health officials to conduct outreach to any customer the CDC believes may be at risk for possible exposure or infection," a representative for the airline told CBS LA earlier this month.

United says Hernandez had filled out a questionnaire before boarding the flight, which asked about testing positive for COVID-19 and having symptoms. It is now apparent the man "wrongly acknowledged this requirement,” the airline said.

SEATTLE, Wash. — Working in emergency services means putting yourself in dangerous situations.

Often, it is life or death, like when a devastating mudslide hit a community north of Seattle in 2014.

“I was deployed to the Oso mudslide about seven years ago and it was a mudslide that killed 40 people,” said Lt. Michael Dulas, with the Seattle Fire Department.

“My role was to help search the mudslide for people. So, we were literally digging, looking for people,” he said.

The weeks-long search effort left an impression on Dulas and hundreds of other first responders.

“We were up there for four 24 hour shifts in a row,” said Steve Yeutter, who works with Dulas at the fire department.

“The most normal part of that day was petting the search dogs at the end of the day,” said Dulas.

The Oso slide and its aftermath inspired Dulas to make a small but significant change within Seattle Fire. The department got dogs.

“Zoe’s a 2-year-old Bernedoodle, so half Bernese mountain dog and half poodle,” said Dulas.

Zoe is Mike’s dog and one of three therapy dogs who have joined the fire department as part of a pilot program. The other two, Hera and Bob, are also owned by Seattle firefighters.

“She’s just being a dog, bringing a smile to people’s faces, being goofy, doing dog things. And dogs are proven to lower your heart rate, lower your blood pressure,” said Dulas

Agencies across the U.S. are looking for a solution to the mental health crisis. Police and firefighters are now more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. About 30% of emergency responders will develop behavioral health conditions like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“For a number of years, those issues were really under-recognized, and it was just assumed, 'Oh, they’re tough. They see it every day,'” said Chip Schreiber, a clinical psychologist at UCLA who specializes in creating programs to reduce PTSD in first responders.

“Suicide and serious depression are the final common pathway of stress and symptoms that potentiate and then lead to greater conflict in the environment and ability to function in your family,” said Schreiber.

“In ’95, Seattle lost four firefighters in the Mary Pang warehouse fire. One of them was my very best friend. Randy Terlicker was his name,” said Yeutter. “Had a hard time for about 24 hours just even functioning.”

Yeutter has spent three decades with Seattle Fire.

Today, one of his jobs is working as a peer support coordinator, helping firefighters deal with a wide variety of scenarios.

“Possibly line of duty deaths, injuries to firefighters. Some of the other things that might trigger a response might be multi-casualty incidents, or possibly suicides or difficult runs with children,” said Yeutter.

Yeutter and Dulas both say they've had experiences where they wished there was more offered by the department.

“I lost a little brother who was in the Army to suicide. I’ve watched my older brother as a firefighter struggle with PTSD and that’s a lot of my motivation is just I want to take a different path and I want to be well,” said Dulas.

Both say there are more resources available to firefighters today.

“When you feel those reactions when you sick, when you feel stressed, when you can’t sleep for a couple weeks, get out there and ask for help,” said Yeutter.

“I want to see everyone retire healthy, happy, with their families intact and just go have a great life after,” said Dulas.