Was flying on SQ from LHR to SIN direct. While somewhere above India, there was THE call for doctors on board to make themselves known. I guess it was a sense of unease as I've only heard about or read about such cases until then.

The Captain decided to make a 'detour' to Penang, Malaysia which is about an hour away (North) from SIN. Upon arrival in Penang early inthe am, I then saw a somewhat distraught lady running into the plane and then way back to the last row. Peeking towards the back, there were medical personnel / doctor which came on board thro the back door.

I guess there situation was very serious in that the plane was diverted. Furthermore, as the ultimate destination was SIN and given the emergency situation started above India, the distraught lady must have flown from SIN to PEN.

In the end, we arrived at Changi an hour late. That was my final destination and I was on holiday. I noted a lot of people missed their onward connections. Upon arrival, those who missed or had a very rushed on board breakfast service were given breakfast coupons.

I never did find out what happened as there wa nothing in the press.

Geez, how fragile can a life be...

Try Other Modes of Transporation
That's all right. In cruise ships, they simply bag'em and stick'em down between the filets and the lobster tails.

Why wouldn't they call for doctors? I wouldn't want a flight attendant making the decision that someone was beyond resuscitation.

Ever the lawyer, leave the burden of proof on the prosecutor. There are cases of good samaritans being sued for good faith actions. They usually are dismissed, for a starter Boccasile vs. Cajun Music Limited. I'm sure you can find many more using Google if you'd bother, but then that wouldn't make your point, would it?

In a Court of Law, when one might be proscecuted under the "Good Samaritan Law", the evidentiary edict would be "Do nothing more, or less, than what one has been taught". Consequently, to prove the knowledge would be statutory, in the case of a licensed physician. Ironically, a physician can be sued for NOT doing what s(he) has been taught...in other words,
s(he) could be sued if s(he) did NOT volunteer their expertise, in a critical situation, in which they were fully trained. As a matter of evidentiary law, the Good Samaritan Law can only be implemented on a VOLUNTEER basis.....without charging, taking, receiving, any money-in-kind for the effort.

Come now, are you proposing that the burden of proof should be on the "defendant"? Perhaps elsewhere, but surely not here at FlyerTalk, the bastion of right-thinking (i.e., correct-thinking) egalitarianism!

And thanks for the compliment -- I'm not an attorney, actually, but I appreciate your perceiving me as having those skills.

Even as a non-lawyer, however, it's easy to see that that facts of the Boccasile v Cajun Music Limited case are only remotely analogous, at best, to a situation where a bystander health care provider who just happens to be on an aircraft undertakes to help a fellow passenger in an unforeseen medical emergency. The Boccasile case involved a nurse and a physician who had volunteered to staff the "medical tent" at a music festival. In other words, the nurse and doctor were present specifically to provide medical attention for attendees who might need it, and it was their "job" (albeit an unpaid job) to do so. Boccasile�s widow argued that because the doctor and nurse had a preexisting duty to render medical treatment to her husband, they did not qualify as "Good Samaritans."

Boccasile's widow lost her case, and the Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed that decision. I will try to find out whether the insurance companies for the doctor and nurse were successful in recovering any of their fees and expenses.

You're correct, there have been a number of relatively recent legal cases in which the "Good Samaritan" defense has been invoked -- for example: Swenson v. Waseca Mutual Insurance Co. (Minnesota., 2002), Moore v. Trevino (Texas, 2002), Hirpa v. IFC Hospitals, Inc. (Utah, 1997), and Hutton v. Logan (North Carolina, 2002), to name a few. But none of them involve fact situations that are anything more than tangentially comparable to the "in-flight" scenario that has been discussed in this thread.

Justin......

If you are NOT an attorney, then you have missed the boat somewhere along the line!

A few years ago SFO - ORD, a fellow had a crisis of some kind. Don't know if it was a heart attack.

We diverted to DEN. The pilot was obviously given priority landing 'cause he came straight in with an unusually rapid descent and approach.

The medics attended the fellow on the plane, then removed him.

The FA's did look shaken - not so unusual for the adrenaline to have after effects.

After a long delay in DEN - storms had developed over the Midwest, and we lost our slot to continue, off we went.

A physician would certainly help in an emergency as professional ethics and human compassion dictates. And a wish for renumeration should certainly not be the motivation for helping others. Still: some sort of appreciation is nice.

On the UA flight mentioned, I was thanked by the captain and the purser gave me a bottle of champagne. I also received a lower 48 Upgrade certificate (sorry to UA FFs, don't know the technical term for it). As I rarely travel domestically in the US, I politely asked whether it would be possible for my partner and I to be upgraded on the return to Europe (*A G; award Y-tickets). As we left the plane, we got an oral confirmation that we would be upgraded on our return flight (to C) which we were. I later received a letter from the Chief Medical Officer of UA enclosing another upgrade certificate; neither of which I was able to use by the way.

The familiy of my patient were insistent on paying me a fee, which I refused. They later sent me an edible gift, but what I cherished the most, was the handwritten letter I received from the patient herself a couple of months later.

I would certainly have done the same thing if I hadn't received the upgrades to C. But as I actually saved UA a costly diversion, I don't find it inappropriate that UA showed their appreciation in this way. As for the "soapboxing": I make a living as a physician. I do not have to get paid for everything I do professionally, but I disagree with Kman that it is "preposterous" to accept a gratification from the airline. If it were unethical to accept this, wouldn't my monthly salary as a physician be just as unacceptable?

So does that mean that physicians or otherwise-qualified medical personnel shouldn't (or don't) fly with their [pick your favorite portable music player] and headphones on for fear they won't hear "THE CALL"? Or should such individuals identify themselves to the purser upon boarding that they should be roused from slumber (or iPod nirvana) should they not hear a medical call?

PS IANAD but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Omahajim---

I think you've lost the entire concept of what we are trying to say. As physicians, we are obligated to serve humanity with the training we have received. Whether we are rewarded by the gratitude of the patient/family/airlines, etc., it doesn't matter. We do not expect anything for our services, but when things are inadvertently presented to us for services beyond anything anybody else could have achieved, we are delighted with the thoughts. That does not include money, for then it becomes a contractual agreement, and not a Good Samaritan service.

The purser happened to know me, and knew where I was seated, so there was no announcement needed asking for an on board physician. Of course I assisted, as any physician would do in that situation. But, had I been asked to help, then refused, the airline could have sued me under the Good Samaritan Law for non-compliance/malfeasance under the statutes of the Law.

As the pilot of the plane told me, "I fly the airplane...that's my job....and I want you to feel free to do whatever you can for our passenger, as I know absolutely nothing about medicine!" The FA's are so very appreciative, as they also know next to nothing about the intricacies of illnesses. Would you rather have a physician attend to an ill family member in mid-flight, than trying to have the pilot and FA's standing over the passenger fretting about what to do? I don't think so!

I was on a flight from IAH to SEA one night and the pilot made an announcement that we might land in DEN cuz one person was having a heart attack but the plane kept on flying to seattle. I did see a lady having a hard time breathing and there was a doctor or a nurse on board staying with the lady the whole way

If offered some token of appreciation: a bottle of wine, an upgrade, whatever, that is really very nice. I have received these things for responding to in-flight medical emergencies.

On the other hand, for a treating phsycian in these circumstances to actively ASK for anything, such as noted in a few posts in this thread, is disgusting. Shame on you. Where is your self-respect? You are a privileged person in society. Act like it.

T PM L

In Nov 2001 I was en route to SEA on a DL flight from DFW when an elderly woman on the flight began experienceing breathing difficulties. The flight attendants became more and more alarmed and visibly upset as the womans condition worsened.

They called for anyone who was a doctor on board, and a doctor and his medical assistant came to the womans aid. The flight was diverted to SLC but by the time we landed the woman had already passed away.

On a side note, I had an experience this weekend which fits in with this topic somewhat....

I was in a retail store on 5th Avenue in NYC this Saturday when an elderly gentleman just dropped to the floor and appeared to suffer a massive heart attack. The store employees were not only completely untrained as to what to do in this emergency, but they were also totally indifferent to the situation and had no regard for this gentleman or his wife, who was of course in shock and in total disbelief. One employee called 911 while at least 8 others simply stood by and watched. One customer began chest compressions and a few moments later, another customer came to assist with the compressions. Only after about 5 minutes (which seemed like 20) did someone ask if there was a defibrillator on site, which there was, and even after that was finally located, no employees seemed trained in its use. The employees seemed to have no clue as to what to do in an emergency, things like getting a blanket or cushion for the mans head, stopping the flow of customers to the area (this happened at the top of the escalator on the 3rd floor level of a floor that caters to children), having an employee tend to the wife, administering CPR or locating the defibrillator in an expedient manner and then being able to use it.

From my vantage point, the gentleman unfortunately was not responding to the efforts made by the customers, and I believe he probably was dead immediately, however I felt that the store employees really should have been better trained as to how to respond to this situation. Seeing that this is a 4 story retail store in midtown Manhattan, it would seem that employees should have more training in what to do in those first vital minutes of an emergency. (To the FDNY's credit, there were there within 5-6 minutes)

I am considering writing to the corporate HQ or emailing but haven't quite formulated a letter that would convey my point that there employees seem poorly trained to help out in this circumstance.

Why shame on me? I was offered an upgrade I couldn't use (US domestic). Before reading the full text on the voucher, I asked whether it would be possible to use it for my return flight two weeks later. When I learned that this was not the case I asked whether I perhaps instead could get one that I could use for my return flight. The purser gave the first voucher to me without any prompting from my side. This kind gift was of no value or use for me, not having any domestic US flight coming up. I asked whether I instead could have something which would be of use to me. If you find this disgusting, fine with me: your problem! My self-respect at least is better when a good job done actually is appreciated. And the best appreciation was the handwritten letter I later from the patient.