Originally Posted by
Skygirl
Sunday afternoon in Seattle, while waiting for my flight at gate N1, a man came out of the Hudson newstand and went into a full blown violent Grand Mal seizure. The paramedics arrived quickly, but the poor guy's violent seizure went on for over 20 minutes. I hate to think what would have happened if the man would have been on our full flight. Anyway, it got me thinking about in-flight emergencies and how they are handled. What sort of criteria do you use to make the decision to land the plane?
Only once have I been on a flight where there was cause for alarm. My ex-husband and I were on a flight to the Virgin Islands and the captain asked if there was a physician on board. My ex stood up and was escorted to the back of the plane where a man was having chest pain. He called for me to assist him in the event that we needed to administer CPR. The man was having angina, but fortunately was ok. Medical emergencies must be a nightmare for a crew with limited medical experience. What do you do though when you're halfway across the Pacific, a long way from any medical facility? Anyway, I was wondering about some of your experiences with such events, as well as what sort of medical kits and meds you carry onboard.
I had a spat of medical emergencies a couple of years ago. Two things I learned: If there's no physician on board, don't waste any time with some sort of phone patch, it didn't work well for me, your time is better spent navigating to a landing. If it's just the flu or something...oh well. It's better than living with fact you could have acted faster to save someone, but instead their dead. Second, some controllers believe that a medical emergency is not a real emergency, and they'll try to vector you all over hell and half of Texas. Don't let them do it. It's a real emergency, exercise your emergency authority and land. Let them move airplanes for YOU, it's their job.