Eastbay1K

The truth is that I don't know much, other than the time that passed between the FA running with oxygen, door 2L opening, the call for a doctor, and the announcement that the passenger had departed by ambulance. My impression is that if they called for medical personnel right away, the response time was not very good.

Efrem

Regarding the hour or so to deal with this: I was on a plane that had a medical emergency situation last year. It took about ten minutes to deal with the medical aspects, including getting out the oxygen and removing the passenger. It then took twenty minutes to replace the oxygen cylinder and make sure everything was properly hooked up and working. Finally, it took about 30 minutes to do all the paperwork involved with the above. It's not like the airline can just take out the oxygen, take the passenger off, shut the doors and taxi out to the runway. 60 or 75 minutes total is not out of line.

Often1

It took 60+ mins to get the sick pax off the aircraft. That is all we know. For all we know, both the onboard announce and emergency request were made at the same time. In fact, this is more than likely.

Why did it take however long it took for the first responders to respond? Unless anyone has facts, that is how long it took.

manneca

I was on a flight about three weeks ago. There was a medical emergency in flight, but we weren't diverted. After we landed, the FA asked all of us to stay in our seats until the paramedics could get on board and deboard the ill passenger. About 10 minutes later, they announced first class could depart. I got off and was part way down the concourse when I saw the paramedics with a gurney. I was surprised that they hadn't been at the gate waiting for the plane. So, it doesn't surprise me that it took an hour to get someone off when the paramedics aren't alerted ahead of time.

Gamecock

In the early 1980s I was a Paramedic in Lexington County, SC, which is where CAE is located. A small airport, to this day does not have an EMS service, so we were often called to the airport for medical emergencies.

We were called one day for a DL flight that was diverted and were at the gate when the plane pulled up. From the time the door opened until we had the patient off the plane was, IIRC, about 25 minutes. (We had to stabilize the patient before moving him.) I would say we may have been faster than this incident as we were there when the door opened. I don't think it is unreasonable that it took 7-10 minutes for an airport based EMS crew to board an aircraft on the ground at a large airport as they have to depart their station and safely navigate the airport to get to the gate.

squeakr

I worked for a very small company some years ago - 3 partners. Two of the partners traveled extensively for the business while the 3rd worked from home and never traveled. I wondered after a while why two of the brothers traveled so much and the 3rd not at all.
I got my answer when the 3rd brother had to travel SFO-JFK when the other two were unavailable. Turns out he drank heavily before boarding, but is unable to use the facilities in a public restroom. When he couldn't use the WC he got so sick the plane was forced to divert to DEN.

pharmalady

Another physician here--albeit in the much-maligned family practice area. Our ethics faculty always told us that the standard was that if you were attending to a patient in an emergency, you only relinquish your care of the patient once you have communicated with the corresponding physician assuming responsibility for the patient.

Was that the same standard you were taught? Just asking, because with all of the changes over time, we were taught THREE ethical pillars and not FOUR. I'm an old-timer.

disalex

I'm betting there were some "other" circumstances that the OP was not aware of. First on my list would the be the patient did not want to be removed from the flight and they had to talk her in to going.
Some weird circumstance like that is the only way I can see this taking an hour

AADFW

It depends on the airline. BA has a pretty extensive kit, as does QANTAS:

http://www.britishairways.com/health...edical_Kit.pdf

kcupp95

I'm pretty impressed that there's a delivery kit in there!!!

markis10

Not to mention a defibrillator unit as well in the case of Qf.

kthomas

Do you speak Spanish? Take a hard look around when taxi-ing, for the airport emergency personnel building at AICM. Then take a hard look at what it is.

Otherwise, in traffic, getting offsite personnel or an ambulance onto the tarmac at AICM could, indeed, take more than 1hr. Much more depending on situation.

emma dog

I believe standard of care is that you can transfer care of a patient to a qualified individual. For example, if someone suffered cardiac arrest and you defibrillated them via AICD in the airport, you don't have an obligation to transport them to a hospital with the paramedics. I believe you do have an obligation to ensure you transfer care to a qualified individual with complete report. I've assisted in at least a dozen out of hospital emergencies and this is what I've always done.

I graduated medical school in 1998, so I'm neither old nor young.

trooper4574

In a medical emergency onboard, I would rather trust a seasoned paramedic then a physician. Unless the doc happens to work in a ER.

FlyingDoctorwu

I got to open up the medical kit once on an Asiana flight from ICN to LAX... couple of things stood out to me:
1) very poorly organized, at least from my persepctive... I kept running into the umbillical cord clamp and oxytocin over and over for some reason...
2) I couldn't for the life of me find a tourniquet, which made IV placement a little challenging...
3) Try taking a manual blood pressure on the plane.. pretty much impossible.. all I could figure out was a systolic pressure of 60s....

Finally, in retrospect I would have them move the patient and raise the lights... economy in the dark is hard to work.. there are also many many forces pushing againist a diversion as well...

FDW