I was half-dozing and listening to music on a flight last week, when I heard the FA make an announcement and asked if any medical personnel on board would identify themselves. I opened my eyes and saw a commotion two rows back, on the opposite side of the plane.

I took out my ear buds and gathered that the elderly lady there was having a heart attack. Luckily, there were two paramedics and a nurse on board who looked after her. She never lost consciousness, and they didn't end up diverting the plane (they talked about that for a bit, but we were probably only about a half hour away from our destination by the time they finished the debate and decided to continue on).

We waited until the paramedics came on the plane, assessed her, stabilized her, and took her off on a stretcher. It looked like she was going to be ok.

I saw how calm the FAs were at the time, but how rattled they looked as we were leaving. Anyone else have a medical emergency mid-flight? That was a first for me.

I hope she's doing ok...

I remember reading a story (at least 10 years ago) about a British Airways flight from LHR to NRT in which the pilot suffered a fatal heart attack. Fortunately there were two pilots in the cockpit, so the co-pilot took over. I seem to recall that they proceded to Narita without diverting. I wonder if they announced that event to the passengers.

I know my story is not travel related, but last spring, one of my customer when for his medical. While doing the EKG test, on the threadmill, he had a massive heart attack and he felt dead on the machine.

Through defebrilator and after 5 minutes, the personel at the hospital brought him back to life.

The doctor told him later, that if he had got the heart attack in the parking lot of the hospital they would not have saved him. THe only reason he survived is because they had immediate access to the right equipement and personel. The 60 seconds it would have took in the parking lot would have been too long!

I had one a couple of months ago on a SAN-MSP flight.

I was in an exit row on an A320 (say, row 11?) and a lady way in the back had some sort of issue... they asked for docs/nurses/EMTs etc... well.. after flying some more, the Capt came on the PA and said we were making a landing in DEN.

So we made the landing in DEN and then headed back up towards MSP.

What's interesting was that I was talking to a LAX-based off-duty FA who was going to MSP for a work meeting and he said that 'in my 17 years of flying for NW, I have never been on a plane that was diverted for a med emergency."

I had a guy pass out on a flight from ORD to LAX last summer. I was in the window seat and he was in the middle. He started to rest his head on my shoulder and I pushed it back. He rested his head on the other PAX who got quite indignant and tried to wake him. He couldn't.

He went for a FA who came back and tried to wake him. She couldn't either. I thought he was seriously drunk. After a while he was able to say his name but quickly went unconscious again. Since we were just 30 min from landing we went right in and paramedics were waiting.

They carried him off on a stretcher while we waited.

I hate when medical emergencies happen on aircraft that I'm flying in. No offense to the person suffering, but it sure has the potential to delay the flight.

The whole point of training for emergencies is to be able to react intelligently, quickly and appropriately while it's happening. What happens later is irrelevant.

Yikes. This is one of those situations that brings a chill up your bloodstream. But luckily it looks like the lady will be fine!

The larger intercontinental aircraft have a surprising range of medical equipment on board.

If something serious seems to be happening the CSD will call for any medical experience from passengers. Almost unknown for no one with doctor/nurse experience to be on board, by the way.

Flight deck will contact their operations centre and be patched through to Medilink, a worldwide organsiation with a 24x7 response centre based, I believe, in Phoenix, Arizona, and staffed with aviation-knowledgeable doctors. In conjunction with on-board doctor and flight captain they make the decision about what to do.

There are some interesting rules. From Johannesburg to London, over land up the length of Africa, major airlines invariably refuse to put down a medical emergency anywhere between Johannesburg and Tunis, on the Mediterranean coast. Facilities just considered to be not good enough. They may do a substantial turnback to get to these places if needed.

En-route diversion can be very costly, getting up to �100k if crew go out of hours, passengers have to be put into hotel, subsequent flights for the aircraft are disrupted, etc, so is only done if really necessary. Having said that intercontinental airlines know what they are occasionally in for, that they are carrying humans and the percentages of times they need to do an en-route diversion. It's just one of the costs of doing business as an airline and is all allowed for in the budgets.

Oddly enough, on my first LHR-JNB we had a bit of a medical emergency when the lady behind me started having breathing difficulty (possibly a panic attack??). Fortunately, the CSD and a passenger with medical training were able to stabilise her and they actually put her in one of the jump seats for the rest of the flight (no spare flat bed seats in F/J according the CSD). Other than that and a couple of minor medical emergency's on short haul flights, I've been relatively lucky.

I agree, however, I wasn't judging their performance or rating this medical emergency...just making an observation.

Last year on my annual biz trip to AMS (connections both way), 3 of 4 flights had a medical on board! No diversions though. On the way there the doc who helped on the first flight also ended up being on the 2nd & had to help out again. So much for enjoying the movie...

Yes, coming back from Punta Cana 3 years ago. They thought a young man was having a heart attack and based on the reccomendation of the "doctor" on board we were diverted to MIA. Turns out he had just been hyperventilating. But we got to sit on the ground for almost three hours before we could leave. This was an Apple charter flight(never again!) and the crew was awful! No drinks, not even ice water for the passengers.

Earlier this summer on one of my NW flights I was sitting in 1D when something happened back in Y. I could just tell by the F/A's body language that something was going on but I wasn't sure what. I saw her take several blankets back to Y and a few minutes later a man comes up to F and is standing in the galley area. The F/A appears to be apologizing to him and offering him a drink, etc. She tells him he can sit in the jumpseat (where he stays for the rest of the flight). A few minutes after that, the F/A says something to the guy sitting in 1C to the effect that she's sorry but the Y passengers are going to be coming by to use the lav in F because a passenger in Y had an "accident" and they need to sit on the lav in Y for the rest of the flight.
I didn't find out exactly what happened but I'm guessing someone's colostomy bag broke.

A few weeks back, LH flight from FRA-HKG, a lady in Y fainted. Calls for medical assistance resulted in a slightly tipsy young-ish doctor rocking up to the galley (me ), as well as several other practitioners of medicine of the Chinese tradition! Whilst I took the blood pressure and re-assured everybody this she'll be fine with some fluids and putting her feet up, the Chinese docs proceeded to accu-pressure her and rub her in various places until the colour came back to her face - me and a FA observed with fascination

It's an interesting topic though - given these situations, I would much rather a paramedic come to my assistance than... a "slightly tipsy young-ish doctor". My colleagues and I have had discussions about whether we'd ever owe up to the fact that we were docs whilst travelling; since at least from my uni, we're not bound by the Hippocratic oath (and we're young, relatively inexperienced etc. etc.) I think ultimately, instinct and potential guilt wins out.