Had an interesting situation last week LHR-LAX.on BA. A few hours into the flight (over Newfoundland or somewhere) there was an overhead request for medical professionals. My heart sank as it always does in these events but I told a passing FA who took me to the back-literally the last row of economy-where there was already another doctor. I do agree with the posters above who commented that one does have an ethical obligation to help within one's scope of practice/competence in that context; however much it spoils the experience of the flight for me it's nothing compared to the inflight experience of the sick person. It turned out that the other doc was a surgeon and as my specilaity is anaesthesia/intensive care we at least felt we could help. The patient looked really unwell and turned out to have an acute abdominal emergency which did need prompt treatment to try to prevent the situation deteriorating. In any case, the crew were brilliant and extremely appreciative. One FA was a nurse as well as working for BA so he was taken out of general service by the inflight manager and stayed with us for the rest of the journey. The crew showed us a card detailing the indemnification BA provides and also asking us to provide personal identification (which the crew didn't do-they were a bit flustered and probably just glad that we were helping). They had already contacted MedLink but when our opinion conflicted with that on the ground Medlink were happy to take our assessment and let us do what we needed to. It was a bit cumbersome telling the crew that I wanted to put an iv and give some medications so that the other doc could carry out a procedure because they had to tell the captain, who had to talk to the ground, wait for them to agree, get back to him and then him to get back to the crew and thence to us. The emergency medical kit was fairly well stocked although I was quite dismayed, after putting the iv in, to find that they carried just 250 mL of iv saline which really is a pathetically small amount. I honestly can't see why they couldn't carry a couple of litres. In any case, we were able to improve the patient's condition significantly and avoid a likely diversion. The captain came back to assess the situation with us and he was just great. We said we should be able to keep going to LAX so that was what happened. We had an expedited landing into LAX, the paramedics took the patient off and that was that. Didn't ask for any compensation (of course recognition is nice but in my experience there is a huge disconnect between the flight crew and the corporate side of BA-ie the flight crew are usually good to excellent but the airline in all other respects couldn't care less). It is, as someone else posted, rewarding knowing that one improved the situation and just the appreciation of the crew and captain was enough. The poor patient was not in a state to care much.
I had a slightly weird experience last year, again on BA, when I was awoken in First by a rather young FA who said they had a problematic passenger further back and they had a doctor there already but would I be willing to help if needed? I said OK thinking it was a bit odd to do it that way round-either they need you or they don't-and I asked what info she had. I know-I probably shouldn't have asked if I wasn't needed but I wanted to be prepared if they did. An alcoholic had decided to stop drinking abruptly a few days prior to the flight and had gone into acute alcohol withdrawal once in the air. Awkwardly, the patient was in an exit row and was causing concern about opening an emergency exit inflight. She asked what my thoughts were. I said "give him a drink!" Not facetious-he's withdrawing from alcohol he needs alcohol in that moment. Well she wandered off and came back to say that the other physician had given him some sedation-BA carry iv diazepam in their medical kit so maybe it was that-and the guy had calmed down. I settled back into my seat but she came back again shortly after to update me that they had overdone the sedation so now he was more or less unconscious and they were worried about his airway. It was like a bad comedy and I became progressively less enthusiastic about my high minded idea of being obliged to help when it involved sorting out another doctor's oversedation problem at 37,000 feet. Mercifully he regained consciousness and I was spared any further stressful updates for the rest of the flight.