Originally Posted by ksu
Or there were, but they didn't dare to acknowledge it, for fear of being sued, at least in the States.
I am medically qualified, and responded to a inflight call once: on a UA transatlantic 777. Not holding a US licence, I did not reply to the first call, but as nobody else made themselves known, I responded. I refuse to believe that I was the only medically qualified on an overbooked June flight, but I guess that others held back due to litigation fears... (My Norwegian malpractise insurance covers this type of emergency, by the way!).
On the other hand flying transatlantic on SK this spring, 60 Scandinavian (mostly Swedish) physicians responded to a minor medical emergency....
Neither of the flights had to divert, BTW
I'm pretty sure (though not 100%) this is correct:
In the U.S. there are what is known as "Good Samaritan" laws that protect anyone, whether medical professionals or not, from liability for services offered in emergency situations such as a heart attack on a flight. Any medical professional would certainly be familiar with the existence of these laws, so I doubt that fears of being sued would prevent a medical professional from self-identifying in this situation.