I remember a conversation last year about the standard of DXB ATC understanding of emergency and unusual requests from flight crews. My colleague had a similar problem getting the ATCo and the tower to understand that his Captain had become seriously ill inflight and that he was in fact now single crewing a B767. He requested that a tow-tractor to meet the aircraft on the runway as he could not turn the aircraft off the runway. He was then told to take up a hold as he was not in their traffic pattern, retorting rather curtly he said over the VHF that his captain is lying on the flight deck floor vomiting violently and needed to get to hospital as quickly as possible. So an expeditious approach was set up and the aircraft handed over to the tower. He informed the tower of his single crew status and asked if the tow-tractor was ready. 'why' was asked by the tower, you take turn off and taxi to terminal. Flabbergasted at this my colleague declared a pan, stated that he would be stopping on the runway and will await what ever assistance the tower would like to send him. Then it all went quiet for a few seconds, the tower said tow-tractor and ambulance will be here waiting. Stopping on the runway, shutting down and informing ATC all ok, the now exhausted SFO, patiently awaited the arrival of the tow-tractor (20mins) and the ambulance (25mins).
Now there is a good ending to this, the captain made a good recovery a few days (and pounds) later. But there is a worrying point to raise, at what point did the ATCo not understand the meaning of single crewing a large heavy aircraft, and why did he not seek supervisory assistance. The Atco in question had complained afterwards that the cleaners were hoovering the room at the time and was having difficulty understanding the requests. !!!!