Linda, welcome to FlyerTalk!

Thanks for an excellent list of suggestions.

Sorry Katja but I have a small correction for you. US airlines may not offer this service but many international airlines do.

Some airlines have medical transfer units for the transfer of very ill patients back to their homes with medical staff. This service is offered to insurance companies who are returning clients from their vacation accidents or illnesses. The unit takes up 4 to 5 rows of middle eco seats. These are removed and "walls" put up. The insides of the medical unit is outfited according to the requirements of the patient. These set ups are cheaper than sending learjets around the world. The medical unit is an alternative to those learjets.

My mom had to have an emergancy hysterectomy (well actually 2 operations in the course of a week) in South Africa 10 years ago. The insurance company who insured her asked her if once she was cleared to fly she would like to come home to Germany. My mom said yes. The insurance company consulted with the dr. treating my mom to determine how she could be returned home.... lear jet, medical unit or lying with legs up in a business class seat. it was then decided together with my mom that she stays in the South African hospital for another 2 weeks and if condtion bettered she would fly home im business class. Had my mom insisted on coming home straight afterwards they would probably have brought her back in the Medical unit onboard a South African Airways flight.

The insurance upgraded my moms & my dads flight home. They then had the airlines Dr. in Cape Town examine my mom (he is the pilots medical arm) and he determine it was not dangerous for her to fly. On the 16th Feburary 1997 my mom was taken to the airport by ambulance & up to the aircarft with the catering lift. My moms foot rest had like a podest under it so it stayed up during take off and landing. My mom was laying in the seat (old Biz) all the way back to Germany. By the way both upgrades were paid for by the travel insurance.

These medical units are actually quite handy and you might have even already flown with one with being aware of it since it looks like a addtional oversized restroom from the outside and the patients for these units are brought onboard long before the regular passengers.

moeve's post is very interesting to me as in the USA a patient after such surgery is often sent home from the hospital in 48 hours! It doesn't matter if you have help at home or not.

Yes, it is brutal, but that's our health care system in the US with insurance companies and Medicare calling all the shots.

Hey South African hospitals are cheaper - besides her operation included a massive infection including fluid in her lungs - which was the reason the Insurer and the airline Dr. preferred her to remain there. Due to the infection the wound would also not stay closed and she flew back literally with a hole in the top layers of her stomach.

Still the South African hospital was great - they were so worried they would get her through surgery they had my dad even have me fly in and held the surgery until I got there. 30 min later my mom was on her way to theater. My mom was in ICU high care for 8 days and most of which she was there on her own with 2 Nurses.

deleted

It's nice when it happens, but it has only happened to me once. (On a Nothwest flight).

This is really interesting!

My 5 year old has a vest system, similar to a portable iron lung, to prevent his lung from collapsing. When I called AA and SW to see about using it on their planes, they said they could not guarantee a plug (I have an adapter that can plug into those lighter sockets) and we were out of luck.

:confused:

We dont need first class, or even business class, just a plug.

Of course, I'd have to find good cheap airfare before this is a problem anywya! LOL

Edited because I just called back and got a different answer.... this time I was told I can ask at the gate for a seat that has a socket.

It's happened to me occasionally, too. Before I got status, I'd get assigned something like 37F, and the GA would put me in an empty First seat rather than pissing off an elite in Economy Plus.

but is it the correct plug? The Travel Technology forum on FlyerTalk has all sorts of information on plugging things in on airplanes.

Correct plug?

Gosh I don't know!

The machine has a 3 pronged plug. I have an adapter for hubby's laptop that takes 2 or 3 pronged plugs and lets you plug them into airplanes/cars. He's used this for his laptop on a plane last year, so we know it works, but havent tested son's machine on it.

I did just buy tickets on AA, called in and they gave me row and seat numbers that are supposed to have those sockets. But she did say that it's only a guesstimate, some planes might claim to have sockets on that row, but may not... so we'll see. It's a 2 hour flight, I'm not gonna stress too much (as much as mom's can, LOL)

Thanks Linda :)
 

Your hints are really helpful, unfortunately, I am stupidly tall at 5ft 10in :(

Mels-a-pops

AA planes don't "claim to have sockets on that row, but may not". The socket locations are determined by the type of aircraft. If you know the aircraft type, you can check on www.seatguru.com to see which seat rows have the socket. The socket is represented by a small black dot. For example, see the seat map for the AA 763. There is a socket for every business class seat. In economy, 10 A/B share a socket, as do 10 HJ. 10 CEG have no socket. Once you are used to reading the seat maps, it is easy to tell which seats have the socket.

Occasionally, the system doesn't seem to work properly, but generally it does. It definitely is not designed for life support, however. The socket supplies 15 volt DC current, at I think 5 amps. Take a look at the power requirements for your son's vest. If it pulls more than 75 watts, this will not do the trick. The vest either runs on AC or DC, and converts power from another source into the power it uses. If it inverts DC into AC, you will experience some added power loss in the conversion.

FAs are supposed to turn the electricity on when they make the announcement that most electronic devices may be used (about 10 minutes after takeoff), but sometimes forget and have to be reminded. They will turn it off when they make the announcement about putting away electronic devices (about 10 minutes before landing).

All airlines reserve the right to change your seats. Normally, they don't change your seat assignment, but it does happen. If you want to be sure of the socket, you really have to buy premium tickets.

In the end, it all depends on what happens if your son does not have the vest operational for the entire duration of the flight. If this creates a problem, I would find another means of transportation.