Nurse faced paying extra fare after trying to save passenger's life

[neville_nobody]

I would shudder the think the implications of this incident for the Captain if the man's family tried to sue.

Nurse faced paying extra fare after trying to save passenger's life (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/nurse-faced-paying-extra-fare-after-trying-to-save-passengers-life-20110225-1b8s3.html)

Nurse faced paying extra fare after trying to save passenger's life
Matt O'Sullivan
February 26, 2011

THE head of Jetstar, Bruce Buchanan, has conceded that the budget airline was ''not on our best form'' when it tried to charge a nurse for an extra fare after she had attempted to save the life of a fellow passenger.

Details of the midair incident on the Jetstar flight from Singapore to Adelaide on November 6 emerged yesterday when Mr Buchanan and the chief executive of Qantas, Alan Joyce, appeared at a Senate inquiry in Canberra into aviation safety and pilot training.

Passengers on JQ62 noticed that an elderly man had spent an ''inordinate amount of time'' in the toilet, the independent senator Nick Xenophon told the inquiry. But one of the passengers, who was a nurse, had trouble making a flight attendant aware of the severity of the situation because of communication difficulties.
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When the toilet door was finally opened, the man was found slumped over after he had suffered a heart attack.

Senator Xenophon said the attendant did not know how to perform CPR, so the nurse tried to revive the man. The aircraft was diverted to Darwin, but the 86-year-old man was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The nurse had to stay overnight at Royal Darwin Hospital because capillaries in her face broke from the amount of effort she had put into trying to save the passenger's life. Senator Xenophon said the nurse was not happy when Jetstar later tried to charge her for an additional fare.

Mr Buchanan said all of Jetstar's cabin crew did CPR training and had refresher courses every two years. But he said it was standard practice for crews to ask whether any medically-trained passengers were on board aircraft when emergencies occurred because doctors and nurses were better placed to handle such situations.

Referring to the incident, Mr Buchanan told the inquiry: ''I think we were not on our best form the next day when she was disrupted out of Darwin.''

A Jetstar training captain, Geoff Klouth, had raised concerns at an earlier hearing that some of the airline's cabin crew were not properly trained for emergencies.

The inquiry heard that Jetstar had reduced the amount of safety training from 25 hours to 18 ''some time ago''. Mr Buchanan said this was because crew served on specific aircraft, and if they were working on narrow-body planes there was no need for the training required on larger aircraft.

Mr Joyce told the inquiry safety was Qantas's top priority, and denied that standards had been diminished due to cost cutting. He rejected ''the scaremongering and misinformation that has been put about'' regarding practices at the airline. ''Safety is never compromised [at Qantas],'' he said.

[airtags]

................and the CASA CEO dodged the Senator's questions yesterday in relation to JQ's "application" to reduce the number of CC.

He stated that CASA had "approved it" but in the next sentences cautiously identified a volley of letters between the Regulator and JQ regarding the matter ....... then recanted to say there's still some work to do......

Bring on the safety case requirement in CAAP of the STILL to be introduced NRPM 20:16:3........ this will make all airlines put on discoverable record their formal risk assessment of the ability of CC to deliver fire/security/medical etc rather than just relying on, and hiding behind, manufacturers' "best day" evac tests.

QF with its rebirthing of NZ reg'd 737's, JQ's long list of safety indiscretions, DJ's safety shortcuts...inc the Junglejet R2 slide (which was unusable due to deployment angle but CASA gave them 12 months to fix).........it all adds up to a toxic regulatory environment that is weak and spells $afety with an $.

AT

Is it true that JQ still don't carry defibs onboard?

[The Kelpie]

Hey Airtags

Defibs - hmmm.

I can't remember Bb's exact words in the evidence he gave to Senate yesterday but he suggested that all aircraft are fully equipped with comprehensive first aid equipment. We will have to wait for the Hansard. On the basis that defibs can be found on the walls of shopping malls I would say these are only 'standard' equipment.

Purely on the basis of BB's testimony I would have to say you should find at least one on every jetstar aircraft. Or was this another case of at best being economical with the truth.

Does anyone know whether CC are required to hold at least ICAO level 4 English proficiency?

[TrafficTraffic]

Defibs - hmmm
Purely on the basis of BB's testimony I would have to say you should find at least one on every jetstar aircraft

I think I read on the safety card last time that I couldn't film, use my gameboy or operate a Defib whilst in flight....or is that only during take off and landing? :ouch:

TT

[psycho joe]

Passengers on JQ62 noticed that an elderly man had spent an ''inordinate amount of time'' in the toilet, the independent senator Nick Xenophon told the inquiry. But one of the passengers, who was a nurse, had trouble making a flight attendant aware of the severity of the situation because of communication difficulties.

Does that mean that the FA couldn't understand English?

The nurse had to stay overnight at Royal Darwin Hospital because capillaries in her face broke from the amount of effort she had put into trying to save the passenger's life. Senator Xenophon said the nurse was not happy when Jetstar later tried to charge her for an additional fare.



Kudos to the Nurse. Now that's professionalism. :ok:

[standard unit]

But one of the passengers, who was a nurse, had trouble making a flight attendant aware of the severity of the situation because of communication difficulties.

Onya Alan, Onya Bruce, Onya Jetstar :}

[Mstr Caution]

But one of the passengers, who was a nurse, had trouble making a flight attendant aware of the severity of the situation because of communication difficulties.



So does that actually mean the FA's were actually unaware that the passenger was actually in the toilet for an inordinate period of time & incapacitated?


But he said it was standard practice for crews to ask whether any medically-trained passengers were on board aircraft when emergencies occurred because doctors and nurses were better placed to handle such situations.




Yes its standard practice, but in this event sounds like it was the other way around. Was it the nurse who actually informed the crew that there was a problem? Then in doing so had such great difficulty due to langauge / communication issues?


Referring to the incident, Mr Buchanan told the inquiry: ''I think we were not on our best form the next day when she was disrupted out of Darwin.''



Thankyou for your comment BB about what happened the next day, care to comment as to the performance on the flight in question?

When asked what crew training has been completed as the result of this event, recalling the senate conversation. Not a lot.

[Ultergra]

Thankyou Jetstaaaaaaaaah

[standard unit]

The Thai flight attendants QF employed for just on 10 years were great workers in the cabin but in the event of any emergency/conflict/medical type situation it was my experience that they were never..............there.

I don't expect those employed by Jetster are any different which would explain why a passenger had to do [by herself] what QF CC do, automatically, unfailingly and without question.

[Mstr Caution]

Standard Unit

Perhaps BB could tell us about the CASA audit of the Thai based cabin crew EP's training seeing that QF & J* have equivalent standards & all.

[Al Fentanyl]

A former medical director of a large international carrier briefed CC that in the event of a medical emergency, they should enquire whether any doctors are on board, then do whatever was necessary to ensure that said doctors were kept well away from the incident :E

[urok]

Defibs - hmmm.

Not on the A320 or A321 fleet. They are carried on the A330, which of course carries QF equipment, and therefore has defibs.

Now of course JQ don't provide or pay for the training or renewal. A First Aid Certificate (or proof of registration in a course) is required as part of the pre-employment checks. As for renewals - it may be policy hidden somewhere, but it most certainly is not enforced nor ever checked. Actually, if an applicant provides proof of enrollment in a course as part of the employment application process, its never actually checked to see if they then went on to pass the course or even attend it...

ALOT of hosties running around under the star without a current First Aid Certificate, or indeed training...

As for the communication issues....... Raised a number of times by a number of different ranking folks (even passengers...). All very cleverly dealt with by it being insinuated that the complainant might just be racist....

[Quokka]

Just out of interest... did that particular aircraft have portable oxygen?

Are the portable bottles 21% oxygen or oxygen-enriched air and at what percentage?

Can the portable bottles be used for a medical emergency or are there crew hygiene and operational-availability issues that preclude the use of those bottles?

[standard unit]

Can't speak for Jetster as I'm fortunate not to work for them [yet?] but QF aircraft portable oxy supplies 4 litres a minute [hiflow] via an open type nose/mouth mask and is for medical emergencies.

Overhead fed therapeutic oxy via the aircraft hold bottles on QF's 744's can be used for longer periods if portable bottles are insufficient except on Australia- Asia sectors. [4 litres a minute hiflow too]

Can't speak for the Dugong.

[airtags]

If UROK's post is confirmed* then it is more than apparent that:

1. Buchannan's answer clearly was misleading and deceptive
2. Joyce's connotation of common , uncompromised safety standards, including endorsing the reference made by Bruce suggesting JQ a/c are fully equiped with comprehensive first aid equipment is similarly misleading...

but.......even more disturbing;
3. CASA has substantially failed to, or was wholly negligent by not even considering it's own about-to-be-introduced CAAP criteria in respect of the 20:16:3 crew reduction "approval" which was questioned by Senator Xeno.


* confirmation would be the equipment locality diagram for the 320/321 contained within the current Operators Manual, changes to which MUST be approved by CASA prior to deployment. - (Pls don't post it here)

AT :E


Today Tonight/ACA et al., - here's a story lead:
How safe is your flight?
Compare onboard equipment, crew training, liferafts etc etc

[teresa green]

Sorry to disrupt your little JQ rant, but let me tell you about a death on a QF flight. Me, S/O, FSD/CSM comes to the flight deck, a old bloke is near death in Y class, what do we want to do about it? One hour out of SYD 0500, well, what can we do about it? Try to make him comfortable, give him oxy, whats the matter with him? Who knows? Nursing sister from SYD and now Flt Attendant says heart, ok we say, ask for a straight in, the old bloke keeps breathing (just) he dies on our arrival, before getting on the arm. So our C/C bundle him into a wheel chair on arrival, put on the cherry picker, close the door and hope the ground staff (who have not been told he is dead deals with it) its all about paper work the FSD tells me. JQ is not the only one. great real.

[Black Condor]

TG,
Are you truthfully saying that the cabin crew just wheeled a dead body onto a catering truck from the aircraft and pretended nothing was amiss?

I have heard some tall fanciful tales but that is a good one.You have to love flying fables,they get better as the years go by don't they.

[standard unit]

I'd suggest you get real Teresa Green.

The bit [of bullsh1t] I like the best is the CSM coming to the flight deck for advise on what to do with a sick passenger. :rolleyes:

The pompous self importance evident in most of your posts TG is getting rather, tragic........

[peuce]

"Weekend at Berniës III"

[mcgrath50]

Anyone read Air Babylon? I feel TG may be 'anonymous' as a very similar story is included in that! :}