Perils of Passage

After an 11-hour flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo, Eiko Ishii was thanking the attendants at the aircraft exit when her face went white and she collapsed. Her husband helped her to a seat and Ishii lost consciousness. Her hands began jerking in spasms. She awoke to her sister telling her a wheelchair was waiting by the door. Sitting down again, she blacked out once more and her eyes rolled back in her head. "My husband and sister told me they thought I was dying," she says.

Clinic staff at Narita International Airport gave her oxygen and rushed her...