Thanks Rick777 and Gingernut.
Rick you are probably right that a volunteer responder is safe, because they have no professional qualification. They may be a factory first aider but they are not a healthcare professional and the bill passed in about 1995 covers that. The issue is if you are a RN or anesthesiologist....
I am sure the risk is tiny, but hey this is a rumour network and I have had a response to my posting! The US has fantastic data on claims but they are classified by specialty and there isnt one for airplane volunteers! I know from friends who are US MDs and attorneys that there have been cases but that is gossip
What is interesting Gingernut is your posting. You worry about litigation in the UK but the truth and the perception are different. For example in the US there were 369,995,000 anaesthetics between 1990 and 2011. Only 5230 lawsuits were closed in that time and a third of the claims werent even for general anesthesia. There were at least 8000 deaths during operations which were not expected or from 'natural causes' so patients were three times as likely to die from a hiccup as to sue. In the UK there are no good figures, but we believe there were only 227 claims started for general anaesthesia between 1995 and 2009 and most failed!!! So I would like you to think again about leaving as the risk isnt the same as the perception and I for one have really enjoyed you participating on pprune.
Somewhere out there is a medical rumour board with doctors saying how dangerous it it to fly.....
