kimwhits

Just wondering. While waiting for a flight to board ACC-LHR I heard a commotion and call for a doctor. Being a pediatrician, I ran to the area and found a young girl having a seizure. The only help was other passengers. I yelled at ground personnel to call an ambulance and rendered aid, found she was probably diabetic, and when she was conscious gave her some juice. About a half hour later we boarded. Still no help and ground personnel not interested. I pictured ths poor girl on the floor being trampled by passengers boarding this full flight. I spoke to 3 BA flight attendants, all saying they were too busy to talk to me. About half an hour later the head purser told me an ambulance had arrived.
We are now at one hour!!

I realize this is Africa but I feel for this young woman alone, disoriented after a seizure being taken at midnight to an African hospital. ( I have worked for 3 years in a government hospital in Africa)

Did BA follow up? Get her details? Contact her parents?

Are ground personnel this callous?

Glad it wasn't a cardiac event. She'd be dead!! I did write a letter to BA. Wonder if I'll hear anything back.

Calchas

Good for you for helping. ^^

Yahillwe

Wonderful job, real wonderful. I remember my son having an allergic reaction to some meds and went into a seizure, went to the emergency room, no one cared, they thought he was a drug over doze patient. The only thing that saved my son was the housekeeper who kept screaming until a Dr paid attention to him. Got a shot and was fine 20 minutes later.

I hope NICCI can follow up and let us know what happened to that young person.

^^^^:-::-::-:

cornishsimon

Sorry to question here but as a children's doctor having rendered aid to a child should you not of really stayed with said child until such time as qualified and appropriate medical assistance arrived to take over from you ?

We live in a world of litigation and duty of care and personally I would not be able to walk away until such time as someone qualified were to arrive and take over this child's medical care.


cs

HIDDY

You said you ''ran to the area'' was she definitely flying on BA? How young was she?

mario

As a healthcare professional I don't think I'd be comfortable leaving this person on her own until I was satisfied that she had been handed over properly.

If I had to miss a flight, so be it. I'm sure you must have had good reasons to leave her behind and board your flight though.

Calchas

I think we live in a country of litigation and duty of care impositions. I would be surprised if this legal culture was widespread in Ghana. Though, as common law jurisdictions often look to others for precedent, it is worth noting that health care professionals have never been successfully sued in the UK, Australia or Canada for helping a stranger.

LTN Phobia

OP - it does not necessarily mean the ground personnel were callous. There may well be factors that you did not know about.

I continue to be amazed at what I "don't" see in relation to flights. One of them involved a recent in-flight medical emergency. On the face of it, it was rather weird, but it was all explained by another passenger who was talking to the doctor who worked on the patient.

Maybe another doctor was present and took over her care from the OP when he had to board. The OP may have had a really good reason to have to board the flight. We just don't know until the OP clarifies it, so I think perhaps we should refrain from making judgement at the moment in fairness to him/her.

We can at least say that he/she was kind enough to come to the patient's aid, and I'm sure the patient was comforted by that.

adrianjc32

.....

1010101

On what planet could there EVER be an excuse for them ignoring requests for help for a potentially seriously ill young girl?

London_traveller

Maybe I'm reading this event differently to some others, but I don't get the impression the OP walked away mid-way through the event. They were trying to ensure after care was provided.

Regarding the example at LHR (I don't want to include the entire post again), so it's now the case only one passenger at a time can get ill? It doesn't matter whether someone is suffering at another gate, if medical assistance is needed at another one then different paramedics should be there too.

gms

I think adrianjc32's point was that all available ambulance crews were busy on other calls that the Ambulance Service had prioritised ahead of their call. Too many people assume that the emergency services have unlimited resources.

I have seen several serious medical emergencies when travelling on BA. Including one passenger who died on my flight. I was very impressed with the way the crew dealt with quite a traumatic situation.

LTN Phobia

They may well have already called the ambulance and since there was a qualified medical professional in attendance, they may have felt it more appropriate to avoid disrupting other passengers, or felt there was nothing else that could be done once the ambulance was called. I suppose it all depends on what kind of help was being sought.

Just because someone is potentially seriously ill, it does not necessarily mean all the staff should attend to the patient. They can even get in the professionals' way or lose control of some potentially evolving situations involving other people. There really is a limit to what they can do, unless they are medically trained, other than calling an ambulance.

1010101

That's a valid point, but does not tie in with what the OP said:

That implies they simply didn't want to know.

LTN Phobia

If they were boarding, they have their duty stations (like guarding the door) and I do not think they are allowed to just leave their posts.

I obviously don't know how their answers to the OP were phrased, but I find BA cabin crew to be pretty compassionate bunch so I cannot see it somehow that they meant to behave in a callous manner. Maybe they didn't even know what the OP wanted to talk to them about and thought it would be a trivial matter?

In the ground crew's case, maybe they knew the ambulance had been called and they did not see the point in calling them again because they knew the system and were certain that it was on its way?

I think there is a tendency on the forum to think ill of staff members sadly, and it is easy for us to do so, but much of the time I think there are much more background to the situation and I prefer to be open-minded about it, much like I was trying to be open-minded as to why the OP did not stay with the patient when he/she was questioned by others in posts above.