DoubleWidesFly

On my flight this week there was a inflight medical emergency. I was the only person to volunteer to help, but I was only an ED RN for 3 years and I've been out of practice and away from the bedside now for 3.5 years. I did what I was comfortable with and the patient lived and we were able to get on the ground to our scheduled destination without the patient being at serious risk.

either way, I thought i would share this with everyone on flyertalk, as this week, just a day earlier then this experience someone died on an AA flight form SJU-MIA. It just shows up how limited our options are at 30,000 feet.

The entire recap is here, but really it was just a bad allergic reacation.

My question is though, have any of you been on board a flight with a medical emergency? Was there more than one medical professional onboard? With no medication orders, no internet, and no medication apps/ other tools to my disposal all I had was my tired brain to use....and after a long flight, my memory wasn't great! (looking back on it hindsite 20/20 I could of connected to the intl' wifi on the 77w)

allset2travel

Thank God that you were on board to assist in the medical emergency. I was in the J cabin, and was aware of the emergency announcements. I did pray silently for whoever that patient was, that he/she would receive proper medical care 30,000 ft up in the air. I appreciate that you stepped up and helped, so that that sick gentleman would be blessed through you. ^

hbtr

I'm not sure if you were specifically looking for responses from medical professionals (I am not) or just anyone, but there are certainly a few FT posts on flights with medical emergencies. I was on an LHR-LAX flight a couple years ago that encountered a medical emergency, I recall the FAs requesting the doctors over the PA and I think they did find at least one MD, maybe a couple. I'm not sure what the specific medical issue was or how it was handled in he air, but it was serious enough that we diverted to Iqaluit in Northern Canada to offload the passenger.

nrr

Several years ago I was flying JFK-LAX-LAS; I was seated near the Y toilets, when a pax waiting to use one "lost is balance" and nearly keeled over; he recovered and seemed OK for a few minutes but then he keeled over again. There was a doctor on board, even though the pax wanted to stay on board, we diverted to Pittsburg. The pax was removed. Everything was handled super efficiently...we got to lax (not that much off the "official" schedule--tailwinds) and I made my connection to las.^
[A FA took my "statement"--just to cover all bases.]

Zach1213

In all my travels, I only remember one medical emergency - 2012, flying SEA-MCI on the newly established Alaska flight. About 30 minutes out of SEA, we got the "are there any doctors onboard?" announcement, and in good Seattle fashion, there were a solid 6 doctors/RNs on the (not all that full) flight, including a couple in the exit row across from me. All of them jumped in to action, F/A's pulled the phone out of the overhead bin to talk with folks on the ground, and it turns out we did not have to divert. I never did find out what happened, but when we landed in MCI, they held us all on the plane until they got the gentleman in question off (he was located a few rows behind me). Handled with absolute perfection by both AS F/A's and the various docs/RNs aboard. I can't imagine how scary it would be for the "patient" and his/her family when something happens at 35k feet, even when diversions are easy (i.e. flying over Idaho, not the Indian Ocean)

Nukedoc

I'm an MD with 2.8 million BIS miles on UA and 2.7 million miles on AA. Have been asked to help pt's with severe nose bleeding to heart attacks 5 times in over 40 years of flying. Its nice to be able to help but an infrequent occurrence on most flights.

egeller624

I was in the J cabin on this flight also and heard the announcement. It was the 2nd time this has happened on one of my LHR-LAX flights. Thank goodness you were on-board to help out. I (like I imagine most of the other passengers) was completely unaware of the details of the situation or the fact that we landed sooner than scheduled due to an emergency being declared. Kudos to the pilot and crew as well for putting the customer/patient first and doing whatever necessary to get him on the ground quickly.

chauvin

I'm also an MD but have flown about 2 million miles on AA. I've helped out on 4 occasions that I can remember, but most of them were not serious enough to divert. However, there was trip where we made a priority landing at ORD for a passenger who was short of breath. Luckily these medical emergencies are a rare occurrence.

Wollstonecraft

I was on a domestic flight from LAX (don't recall where to) when a woman apparently fainted at the gate. Emergency personnel were called in to the gate, revived her, and the flight was delayed. For some reason, they let her on the plane into J, and it happened again in flight. She had not eaten or something like that, and the FAs were literally rolling their eyes, as she was being very dramatic about it (and it was clearly not life-threatening). There was a medical professional in Y who took care of her, but mostly I remember the FAs who were not impressed.

MADPhil

I was on an ORD-LHR flight a few years back when there was a medical emergency. We were just east of Newfoundland and turned back. Within 30 minutes the passenger was in an ambulance on the way to hospital and we were later told that she was OK. Either I was asleep for the announcement or there was skilled help close by and they didn't need to make one. I think that most airlines have medical consultants on call and can patch them through to the aircraft in most cases but there is no substitute for on the spot expertise even if the on board facilities are very limited.

It struck me that there were parts of the route over northern Canada where it would have taken much longer to land.

davesam12

Only once, after all these years of flying and it happened just this past July on AA SJU - DFW. Automated "need for medical assistance" announcement came over the entertainment system on the 757. It was about an hour after take off. One Doc jumped up immediately and indentified himself to crew, he was sitting in front of us in the F cabin. Ill passenger was in the back. When he returned - overheard him tell his seatmate that there was another Doc and Nurse in economy who helped out. Ill passenger ended up being fine and we continued on to DFW.

nyold

It happened in my flight from JFK-SLC. I don't know what happened exactly since it all happened behind me (literally), but the crew was asking for a doctor. Someone stepped up. And not long after, the crew was asking for a pair of AAA batteries. I had them in my noise-canceling headphones and I know that they're rather new. So I offered them.

At the end, the patient lived and he was fine, and as a thank you the crew gave me a choice of free meal I didn't get my batteries back because he still needs them for whatever device he was using to save his life, but meh I can live with the airplane noise

PLeblond

I had back to back flights in January with the 'Is there a doctor or medical professional on board?'. People immediately respond. One was the seat right in from of me. No diversions. Both passengers ended up being alright. They did take out the O-2 for one of the passengers. I spoke to a pilot in a hotel shuttle bus. Apparently, pilots have access to medical hotline from the cockpit.

paramenace

2 years of flying a significant amount amount and have had 3 times that I've had to assist. I'm an emergency physician and am happy to help out when the call comes but for the most part unless the patient is critical--aka--cardiac arrest, there's very little that can be done besides getting them on the ground. The planes carry some advanced medical equipment and medications which is reassuring but for the most part with "routine-type" flight emergencies, there is not much that can be or needs to be done emergently. Most things can wait until on the ground/in proper care/on the way to the hospital. I've had to wrestle with the decision of do i ask to divert a plane-ful/hundreds of people for what could potentially be nothing and will an extra hour/2/3 of flying make a difference enough (especially considering that diversion itself would usually take a significant amount of time just to get on the ground), vs proceeding to the destination. The decision, really, is not mine. It is the captain's. All i can do is explain how serious i believe the situation to be and how urgently that patient needs to be in the hospital. Also, all US domenstic airlines (and many large international carriers) have contracts with a medical facility and online physician at a major center in the US that they make contact with and based on the patient's complaints and vital signs the physician on the ground can also advise the captain on the need to divert.

869

3 consecutive flights from Europe to US diverted for medical emergencies in January 2012. Two from Italy turned around and stopped at LHR. The ex-MAD flight proceeded to bermuda to offload pax. All three resulted in missed connections for basically the whole flight.