FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Appreciation for Medical or Health Assistance?
Old Sep 1, 2006, 3:52 pm
  #5  
schwarm
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: SAN
Posts: 2,426
Well, what I got was a ride in the cockpit while talking on the radio (pre 9/11, obviously), a bag full of little airline alcohol bottles, and thank yous from the FAs and pilots.

I was helping a guy with what seemed quite clearly to be a kidney stone. I'm a specialist in a very specialized field, so my general medicine is not all that automatic. I wasn't absolutely, 100% certain. Ruptured aortic aneurysm would be pretty unlikely in a 30-year-old.

They asked me whether they should divert, and I said, "I'm not qualified to make a decision as to whether an airplane should divert." They patched me though on the radio to a central airline medical service (hence the cockpit). I described the symptoms and my thoughts to the MD on the radio, and he made the decision that we did not need to divert.

I guess the only thanks I would hope for is not to be sued. If I had had to make the decision, I would have said to divert in order to cover my a$$.
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