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Originally Posted by CKA1
(Post 27751715)
Hi,
I'm taking a first aid course, in fact I finish it tonight. We were taught that in a First Aid kit, you should not have OTC medication. Imagine being at a workplace (which for the Flight Attendant is on a plane in flight) and giving somebody a Tylenol or Aspirin and they turn out to be allergic. They die. Now, imagine the family of the person who died. They're going to want (A) answers, (B) money and (C) potentially criminal charges. I would imagine the airlines have insurance to cover this. I do in my personal business and when I graduate from school I will likely be covered by whoever I work for. But that doesn't mean I can't be sued for gross negligence. In Alberta they call it the Good Samaritans rule. You cannot be held criminally liable for doing your best. That's why people who perform first aid in good faith are not liable. A first aider is legally obligated (in Alberta) to not provide or administer any substance which could be considered a OTC or prescription drug. It's called different things in different jurisdictions, but across Canada, except Quebec it's a similar idea. Prescribing drugs or administering drugs are for your doctor and hospital staff. If somebody dies at the hospital, it's one thing. But if you die on an airplane because you reacted badly to something the FA decided to give you, I bet the FA and airline would be entirely at fault. Chuck I was trained in combat first aid, which is again a very different ball game to office first aid, and our first aid kits included, among other things, morphine single dose syringes (a bit like epi pens) which we were all trained to administer. We also learnt how to reinflate a lung, tube an airway, deal with abdominal organs that have left the abdominal cavity, and other gross things I hope I never have to do. Whilst I am never going to take a razor blade and tube to a stranger's throat should they no longer have a viable airway, I would certainly give it a go on a friend or relative if needed (the alternative being that they would die). There are two types of first aid in my mind - what you do to help strangers, and what you do to help a close friend or loved one. |
Originally Posted by emma69
(Post 27771819)
As I understand it, a flight first aid kit has items that only paramedics, doctors or those otherwise authorized to use them in (aside from band aids etc that the FA can dole out.) A doctor on board (or in some cases, via a radio link) can instruct items to be used (my doctor friend was called upon on a long flight to deal with a medical emergency and had access to several drugs she needed to sustain life). It is a very different situation to an office first aid kit, where emergency life support is a short distance away (911 etc.).
I was trained in combat first aid, which is again a very different ball game to office first aid, and our first aid kits included, among other things, morphine single dose syringes (a bit like epi pens) which we were all trained to administer. We also learnt how to reinflate a lung, tube an airway, deal with abdominal organs that have left the abdominal cavity, and other gross things I hope I never have to do. Whilst I am never going to take a razor blade and tube to a stranger's throat should they no longer have a viable airway, I would certainly give it a go on a friend or relative if needed (the alternative being that they would die). There are two types of first aid in my mind - what you do to help strangers, and what you do to help a close friend or loved one. But, let's say you're in a plane where you're the only person with anything remotely close to a doctor, would you have attempted to do those things to a stranger? (Assuming, of course, if you don't then that person could be in real danger) |
I take Xanax before every flight. I was wildly wasted until I found my correct dose and got acclimated. I can't imagine FA's trying to find someone's correct dosage on the fly.
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I have had an FA give me anti-nausea meds on a flight, although in retrospect i'm surprised that they would give out meds. Certainly in my first aid training, as others have mentioned, we were told that we are not allowed to give out any medication, even simple OTC headache tablets. And our kits at work aren't allowed to contain anything of the kind, either.
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Benzodiazepines and opioid medications are DEA scheduled drugs, meaning that administration of such drugs must first be authorized by someone licensed by the DEA to do so, at least in the USA.
I assisted in the care of a patient who had an inflight anaphylactic reaction on a DCA-LAX flight in 2012. Before the FA would allow me access to the inflight medikit I had to show her my medical license as well as my DEA certificate, and she asked for quite a bit of personal information. |
Originally Posted by pon18n
(Post 27773060)
This is out of sheer curiosity, I wouldn't have judged you either way you answer to this.
But, let's say you're in a plane where you're the only person with anything remotely close to a doctor, would you have attempted to do those things to a stranger? (Assuming, of course, if you don't then that person could be in real danger) If I had time to think, it is dreadful to say, but I would consider the legal jurisdiction I am in - in some countries, the law compels you to render assistance (civil law, duty of rescue) and protect those rendering assistance. In others (under common law) a practical approach is taken to what would a 'reasonable' person do in the circumstance - in the UK for example, I don't believe anyone (non medical) has been successfully sued for rendering first aid (successfully or otherwise) to someone in a life or death situation because the courts take this 'reasonableness' into account, determining, normally, that trying something is better than doing nothing. If I was in the US... well bets are off! |
FAs do not dispense meds, only something from the first aid kit, not the medical kit. Only a verified {ID} doctor can dispense meds from the medical kit. A medical person can help out in any situation, but once medicine is needed, then ID will be checked.
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As an alternative to requiring anxiety medicines on board, I'd suggest trying a self-hypnosis app on your smartphone. You listen to the self-hypnosis programme through headphones and it makes you feel very relaxed and comfortable. These kinds of apps are free or very low cost for Android and iOS.
You may find it's enough to control your anxiety or panic attacks. |
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