Adelaide asthma sufferer Fanny Jacobson who almost died in the back of an Uber begins hunt for driver who she says saved her life

A woman who suffered a severe asthma attack in the back of an Uber while on her way home is on the hunt for the quick-thinking driver who saved her life.

Adelaide woman Fanny Jacobson was in the back seat of a car on her way home on April 9 when she experienced a severe asthma attack.

Ms Jacobson was halfway through her Uber trip from her friend’s house in Stepney to her home in Magill when she started gasping for air and fainted. 

She believes she would have died had it not been for her quick-thinking Uber driver who performed CPR until an ambulance arrived.

Emergency services rushed Ms Jacobson to the Royal Adelaide Hospital where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and put on a ventilator for 10 days – which put her at risk of permanent brain damage. 

Ms Jacobson, who has made an extraordinary full recovery, now wants to find the driver and thank him for saving her life. 

She explained while she has always suffered from asthma, that particular day was the ‘perfect storm’ of factors that made the attack so severe. 

‘I have always been asthmatic – also unfortunately a smoker – and the weather was getting colder. I was visiting a friend who just had some renovations done and there was lots of dust in the house,’ Ms Jacobson told The Advertiser.

Ms Jacobson reached for her asthma pump and told the driver that he should stop the car before she fainted. 

The next thing she remembers is having an out-of-body experience during her time in the ICU. 

‘Once I had come off the ventilator, I had no muscle tone and I couldn’t stand, plus I had pneumonia, as well as a bowel infection from the antibiotics – so I was wrecked,’ Ms Jacobson said. 

Ms Jacobson added she is ‘alive and well’ and just wants to thank and reward the man who saved her life.

‘I just feel this huge sense of obligation and thankfulness and humbleness towards the Uber driver because without him I might have been much worse off,’ Ms Jacobson said.

Ms Jacobson’s Uber driver driver stopped the car and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Now, Ms Jacobson wants to find the driver to thank him for saving her life 

Ms Jacobson does not drive herself, and often opts to take an Uber, after she injured a motorcyclist in a crash. 

In 2012, Ms Jacobson picked up her mobile phone while driving and crashed, which resulted in a motorcyclist losing their leg. 

Ms Jacobson was apologetic and avoided a two-year jail term on condition of a two-year bond. She was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.