emergency medical failure
#31
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: ATL
Programs: A few
Posts: 133
When parked outside the gate on a plane with no air, feeling like 95 degrees, no ice, no cold water, and one glass of warm water where a 10 minute delay to burn fuel turns into an hour with no notice and I begin to experience heat exhaustion.
A request to the stewardess, repeated, for cold water or other drink, air conditioning, or take me off this
plane was met with no, no, no. Being of age I have less tolerance than some about heat tolerance.
What do I do?
There seem to be no guidelines for length of time and excess temperatures.
Help!
A request to the stewardess, repeated, for cold water or other drink, air conditioning, or take me off this
plane was met with no, no, no. Being of age I have less tolerance than some about heat tolerance.
What do I do?
There seem to be no guidelines for length of time and excess temperatures.
Help!
#32
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,040
If you were indeed suffering from heat exhaustion and classifying it as a medical emergency as noted in the thread title, you should have notified the FA that you had a medical emergency and needed an ambulance (no different than if you were having a heart attack) they would in-turn advise the flt crew and they would declare a medical emergency, get priority to return to a gate with Fire/rescue meeting the aircraft ship-side to treat you.
§259.4 Contingency Plan for Lengthy Tarmac Delays.
(4) For all flights, assurance of operable lavatory facilities, as well as adequate medical attention if needed, while the aircraft remains on the tarmac.
#33
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 246
While we are giving this old guy a hard time, since this is DLH-MSP on DL, we are talking about a CRJ 200. These are notoriously bad at offering airflow even with the engines running on the ground so if it was needed to burn off fuel to get below max landing weight on a full airplane, it's easy to imagine it getting uncomfortably hot. OP doesn't say when this occurred but even with outside temps in the mid 70s, a full 200 gets hot in a hurry. If the OP was a little over dressed or uncomfortable from the exertion of getting on the airplane then things can spiral.
As far as what you can do now, nothing.
As far as what you might do next time you encounter this, you can say that you need either a cold drink of water or need to get off the airplane immediately. If you insist on deplaning they cannot hold you against your will. You should, however, expect that you will be driving to MSP or wherever your final destination may have been. The 200 was designed as a business jet, it was never intended to be a regional airliner. The PACKS (pneumatic air conditioning kits) were never designed for the job they now do. The 700 and 900 are better. Your best option to avoid this would be to not book an itinerary on a CRJ-200. However in DLH, that may not be possible.
As far as what you can do now, nothing.
As far as what you might do next time you encounter this, you can say that you need either a cold drink of water or need to get off the airplane immediately. If you insist on deplaning they cannot hold you against your will. You should, however, expect that you will be driving to MSP or wherever your final destination may have been. The 200 was designed as a business jet, it was never intended to be a regional airliner. The PACKS (pneumatic air conditioning kits) were never designed for the job they now do. The 700 and 900 are better. Your best option to avoid this would be to not book an itinerary on a CRJ-200. However in DLH, that may not be possible.
#34
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 64
Lack of sweat is a very big tell as I am normally a profuse sweater.
And that is as much as I recall before lights out from falling asleep or fainting.
#35
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: ATL
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Posts: 133
Just to make sure I'm following you, are you saying that you fainted and they didn't seek medical attention for you? or am I misunderstanding?
#37
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#38
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Unless you are standing up at the time, it's not going to be obvious whether someone simply fell asleep or fainted. It seems OP is not even sure which of two it was.
#39
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 64
HOWEVER the stewardess had a perfectly clear statement that I was experiencing a serious problem and that
either I receive some ice or iced liquids OR I be taken off the plane. She stated that they had no ice or cold drinks
or anything except room temperature water and my request to be deplaned was then repeated. That's the last I recall.
Read about the baby on United which entered into serious harms way. It may not be for years that any long term effects may be known as the heat. An extreme example but makes its point.
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea....united-flight/
#40
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: CHS
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 508
I cannot be sure whether I fainted or fell asleep.
/
/
You say you were disoriented and your speech was slurred, and yet the flight attendant (that's what they are called, and have been for years. Not stewardesses) ignored the fact that a passenger (you) was disoriented and had slurred speech? That is extremely difficult to believe.
#41
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First Aid for Heat Exhaustion
- Take worker to a clinic or emergency room for medical evaluation and treatment.
- If medical care is unavailable, call 911.
- Someone should stay with worker until help arrives.
- Remove worker from hot area and give liquids to drink.
- Remove unnecessary clothing, including shoes and socks.
- Cool the worker with cold compresses or have the worker wash head, face, and neck with cold water.
- Encourage frequent sips of cool water
Second, electrolytes and chemistry play a vital role. Heat stroke which develops from heat exhaustion is often fatal.
What makes it so insidious is that serious disorientation arises so the person cannot care for their well being and
the common sense preservation is no longer normally functioning.
People you have it wrong!
#42
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Ok, reality check:
1. The OP appears a wee bit dramatic. With all due respect.
2. The OP is fixated on ice and/or cold beverages. Not just liquids. It has to be iced or cooled, he insists. Which is not clinically relevant. With all due respect.
3. The OP says he stopped sweating. When you stop sweating, it means heat stroke is imminent. (If you are overheated and still sweating, you can develop heat exhaustion; stop sweating and you are talking about potential heat stroke. Sweating is a great way for the body to liberate heat and cool off; stop sweating and you lose this ability). Trouble is, you don't go from normal to heat stroke in 45 minutes on a 90 degree (or even 100 degree) plane. You just don't. Yes, older folks are more susceptible to heat, and would feel the effects of it more quickly. But heat stroke would be a stretch after 45 minutes on a warm plane, even for a 90 year old.
4. If you truly had a heat injury, you should have been stripped naked so you could cool off. And if truly not sweating, you should have had ice packs placed on your naked person. Net result: head back to gate and cart the naked heat-injured passenger off the plane. Note: The apparent heat-injured passenger survived to post another day on FlyerTalk.
Now, assuming the account is true, not sure why they would have overloaded the plane with fuel (as expensive as fuel is currently). Fuel loading is usually done in a fairly precise way.
Having said all of that, I hate the CRJ.
1. The OP appears a wee bit dramatic. With all due respect.
2. The OP is fixated on ice and/or cold beverages. Not just liquids. It has to be iced or cooled, he insists. Which is not clinically relevant. With all due respect.
3. The OP says he stopped sweating. When you stop sweating, it means heat stroke is imminent. (If you are overheated and still sweating, you can develop heat exhaustion; stop sweating and you are talking about potential heat stroke. Sweating is a great way for the body to liberate heat and cool off; stop sweating and you lose this ability). Trouble is, you don't go from normal to heat stroke in 45 minutes on a 90 degree (or even 100 degree) plane. You just don't. Yes, older folks are more susceptible to heat, and would feel the effects of it more quickly. But heat stroke would be a stretch after 45 minutes on a warm plane, even for a 90 year old.
4. If you truly had a heat injury, you should have been stripped naked so you could cool off. And if truly not sweating, you should have had ice packs placed on your naked person. Net result: head back to gate and cart the naked heat-injured passenger off the plane. Note: The apparent heat-injured passenger survived to post another day on FlyerTalk.
Now, assuming the account is true, not sure why they would have overloaded the plane with fuel (as expensive as fuel is currently). Fuel loading is usually done in a fairly precise way.
Having said all of that, I hate the CRJ.
Last edited by Robert Leach; Jun 3, 2018 at 12:04 am
#43
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#44
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 64
However consider I worked with chairman of cardiology at Newark Beth Israel on refining and correcting their EKG mathematics often during live procedure. Mayo clinic Leukemia research (live). Research on red blood cell life cycle and monitoring of diabetes.
On site in ER on days of highest traffic monitoring quality of care, first hand witness to hundreds of heat related patients.
#45
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For Friday May 25th, the forecast high temperature was 84 and the actual was 87, partly cloudy. Two o'clock in the afternoon should have been before the hottest point of the day.
I assume this was a CRJ-200 to MSP?
ADDED: Tomorrow's flight (for a random weekday) at about this time is DL 4761operated by SkyWest, 2:12 pm to 3:13 pm, for a total of 143 miles.
BTW, it's less than a three hour drive and reasonably pleasant until you hit the northern suburbs, so IMO it doesn't make sense to fly unless one is connecting onward from MSP.
ADDED again: On Friday May 25th, DL 4761 left DLH at 2:44 pm (32 minutes late) and arrived at MSP at 4:13 pm (one hour late) according to flightaware.com. The 2:44 time is gate departure; actual takeoff occurred at 3:31 pm but was scheduled for 2:22 pm. Upon arrival, landing occurred at 4:43 pm (scheduled for 3:43 pm) while gate arrival was 4:13 pm at A8.
I assume this was a CRJ-200 to MSP?
ADDED: Tomorrow's flight (for a random weekday) at about this time is DL 4761operated by SkyWest, 2:12 pm to 3:13 pm, for a total of 143 miles.
BTW, it's less than a three hour drive and reasonably pleasant until you hit the northern suburbs, so IMO it doesn't make sense to fly unless one is connecting onward from MSP.
ADDED again: On Friday May 25th, DL 4761 left DLH at 2:44 pm (32 minutes late) and arrived at MSP at 4:13 pm (one hour late) according to flightaware.com. The 2:44 time is gate departure; actual takeoff occurred at 3:31 pm but was scheduled for 2:22 pm. Upon arrival, landing occurred at 4:43 pm (scheduled for 3:43 pm) while gate arrival was 4:13 pm at A8.
Last edited by MSPeconomist; Jun 3, 2018 at 1:08 pm