Is there a Doctor on board?

[Sir George Cayley]

Just caught the end of a news story on TV about a woman pax on an internal flight in the US enroute to her daughters wedding who suffered a suspected heart attack.

When the FA made the call 15 people pressed their overhead button. Apparently they were Cardiac Specilaists going to a conference.

Hope they asked her for 6 lucky numbers when she came round!

Anyone got a link to the full story pls?

Sir George Cayley

[dwlpl]

Sir George,

The woman, Dorothy Penman from Liverpool, was on her way to Florida to see her daughter get married.

She just boarded the connecting flight from Philadelphia to Florida when after massive chest pains the FA's where summoned.

They asked on the aircrafts tannoy if there were any doctors on board the flight. The FA's were amazed to find not one but fifteen cardiologists on their way to Florida to a medical conference!

All ended well.

Follow this link http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/content_objectid=13771199_method=full_siteid=50061_page=2_he adline=-Woman%2Dwho%2Dis%2Dthankful%2Dto%2Dbe%2Dalive-name_page.html

[Front_Seat_Dreamer]

Here too:

BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/3359149.stm)

Although me thinks the beeb may have nicked the story from the prvious link...

[Rolling-Thunderbird]

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1103&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20031231%2F125508625.htm&sc=1103

[maxman]

Sorry to go off topic a bit. But what are the chances of having a Doctor on a flight, anyone care to guess?

[Pax Vobiscum]

maxman

Top of my head - there are 200,000 doctors registered with the GMC and the UK pop is around 60,000,000, making 1 in 300 people a doctor. So on a reasonably full 747, so you'd be rather unlucky not to find a doctor on board.

In reality, I would guess that more doctors fly than the average member of the population, so the odds are really somewhat better than this.

[Tart with the cart]

don't forgot about nurses! And the fact that if a mother goes into labour a midwife will suffice-being the lead professional at 75% of European births.

[Paracab]

And ambulance personnel - a colleague once dealt with a severe case of anaphylaxis on a transatlantic flight, very poorly lady apparently, until intervention. Anyone know who insures practitioners that treat patients during an inflight medical emergency ? You can bet your bottom dollar their own organisation/trust etc doesn't.... :confused:

[maxman]

It looks likley that on a 747, you could get aDoctor, a Nurse, and a Paramedic, not to mention the crew that have first aid training.
I likes them odds:ok:

[pilotwolf]

I treated a lady having a heart attack several years back whilst travelling to the USA. There was no doctor or nurse on board - at least none that made their presence known.

Virgin had an excellent range of equipment and drugs available for the medics' use. I also queried the liabilty situation as the patient was American. Virgin's insurance policy covered me up to my level of training or anything done under direct direction from (?)Medlink.

You are also covered by the law of the country where the aircraft is registered.

I was also contacted later by Virgin's medical advisors for my views and opinions on the equipment they supplied.

The champers and hamper was quite nice too!:ok:

PW

[Paracab]

Well played pilotwolf, will bear this in mind when travelling by air in future, even if it involves giving up pre-flight bar sessions :}

[Seat 32F]

Reminds me of when I was on a Thai International flight from BKK - LHR a few years back. 30 mins into the flight, I noticed that the old lady in the seat in front of me was having a seizure of some sort. The newlyweds sitting next to her were oblivious to her condition, so I called the flight attendant, a young Thai lady. She thought I wanted a drink or something, eventually I managed to get her to understand that the lady in front was in distress. She went away and returned .... with a glass of water!

I started to make a bit more of a fuss and suggested that she try to find a doctor. Eventually the call went out ... and two Buddist monks walked up and started sprinkling scented water over the lady. Eventually a Sikh gentleman appeared with a stethoscope and asked the crew to find her some oxygen. He seemed to know what he was doing but even so by this time I was seriously expecting a nun with a guitar to appear ...

As far as I know the old lady was OK - she got moved to a first class seat until she was taken off at Delhi - hell of a way to get an upgrade though :rolleyes:

[DX Wombat]

Sadly many doctors and nurses will not answer a call for help as they are far too worried about possible litigation. This in spite of the fact that nurses are officially required to help in any emergency up to the level of their current experience / training.
The possibility of litigation is a very real one but one which can be eased by airlines agreeing to idemnify any qualified person willing to help. Crew should also remember that not every passenger who has the title "Dr" is necessarily a medical practitioner. There is an excellent InFlight Nursing Course which I am hoping to do this year - last year's course was cancelled at the request of the CAA - for security reasons. It isn't only within the aircraft itself that help may be needed. I once received a VERY welcome upgrade from BA becuase I bothered to spend five minutes trying to ascertain the nature / severity of the illness suffered by a passenger on the airbridge at Singapore. BA's attitude was "If you help us, we will help you" I had a blissfully comfortable trip back to the UK as a result and received really special treatment from both ground crew and cabin crew.

[Ropey Pilot]

On a transatlantic flight with Mrs Ropey (who is a Doctor) on a Delta flight when the call came.

Duty called and she ended up giving a 40 min private consultation to a business class pax (luckily not a trauma type case). Afterwards we returned to cattle class and carried on with the flight.

Wasn't expecting a huge amount in return, but a thank you letter would have been nice - as it was all that happened afterwards (on the flight) was that she asked for a glass of wine and they charged her $4! :( (Wonder what a 40 min private consult costs in the US).

With the threat of litigation I'm surprised many doctors come forward at all!

RP

[Gouabafla]

On a recent Paris - Yaoundé flight the passenger next to me seemed very distressed, so I called the FA, who in turn called for a doctor. It turned out that the young lady next to me who had flown from the US the previous night was suffering from a rather bad case of pneumonia (how do you spell that?). The FA offered to allow me to change seats, but being a hero type I stayed where I was so that someone would be on hand to watch the pax next to me.

Anyway, all went well, she left the plane at Douala and I was rewarded for my services with a little business class box of goodies - socks that don't fit any known foot, a razor and superior eye shads. Now I know what luxury you types who sit in the front of the a/c enjoy.

[TR4A]

Sadly many doctors and nurses will not answer a call for help as they are far too worried about possible litigation

This is not true in the USA.

A "Good Samaritan" provision in the Aviation Medical Assistance Act of 1998 limits the liability of air carriers and non-employee passengers unless the assistance is grossly negligent or willful misconduct is evident.

[answer=42]

I was flying BA to Africa a few years ago when the lady in the seat in front of me went into labour. Two doctors showed up after PAX announcement. All went OK: lady in question was met at first stop by an ambulance. Child had the 'wrong' nationality though.