px illness question(s)
 

I'm posting here in Major but anyone that deals with px please answer (corporate, etc)...

At your respective employers, did any of you receive any kind of public health training, infectious (contagious) disease training or anything like that? Meaning, as the one in command of the a/c did anyone train you guys on what to do if a px suddenly becomes violently ill in any way? Like setting up quarantines? Do you have protective equipment for the crew (masks, gloves)? Do you know what to do once on the ground? Do FAs receive this kind of training?

If you received this kind of training, did the airline bring in a contractor/consultant to talk to you about it?

If you deal with px PLEASE try to take a second or two and let me know!
Or, if you can direct me somewhere that answers these questions also let me know!
Many thanks in advance.
:)
animals

Resource Management. SelCal Dispatch, talk to ATC, Dr. on the plane?

Bottom line don't try to solve these problems yourself. You are not alone up there, so don't act like it.

Agreed. The most important thing is to utilize all available resources.

Most major airlines have either company employed medical personnel (or more likely) they have subscription service to companies that provide that service, such as MedAire. The benefit of this type of program is that these outside companies often assume responsibility for liability in the event something goes wrong. We (the pilots) get patched through via an air-ground radio phone patch to Medaire and talk directly to their Docs.

Generally airline pilots aren't trained in any sort of medical techniques or first aid, simply because it isn't their job to treat an ill pax. It's their job to get the plane on the ground so that passenger can be treated by appropriately trained people.

Most companies put flight attendants through basic first aid training, including the use of the defib unit. Some companies also provide CPR training to FA's. Airliners are equipped with some basic medical equipment, including automated defib units, first aid kits, portable oxygen bottles, BP cuff, and an emergency medical kit which includes some medications such as nitro tablets, epi pens, and some other basic things that a doctor or other qualified medically trained person might utilize (the crew is generally NOT authorized to open the EMK on their own).

In the corporate environment, specialized training is more likely. At my company I am a certified Emergency First Responder, and our parent company aviation department (which has FA's) sends every flight attendant to be certified as EMTs (including recurrent training every 18 months)

Yes but you are the captain, this is YOUR plane, YOU are responsable for everyone on that plane. Besides I'm sure everyone else is going to come to the captain and ask What do we do?

True, but you aren't a doctor. Unless you are medically trained, you shouldn't be instructing or directing medical treatment outside of the scope of your abilites.

Fly the plane. Coordinate a ground response and diversion. Stabilize the passenger to the best extent possible and get the passenger off the plane at the safest possible moment that is also appropriate for the conditions.

The quick answer is "yes" to all the above. As pointed out, with a VHF phone patch, or SATCOM you have all the additional resources you'd need. From the cockpit, after I set up the phone patch between our doctors and the FA (dispatch & who ever else wants in on the call) I let them tend to the pax, then make a decision to continue or divert after we have all the info.

Thanks everyone.

There is growing interest in the public health field in how to prevent the spread of illness on a 'common carrier transport'; just wondering if, on your end, anyone (ie your employer) has made you aware of this and if so, have they provided any training, especially in preparation for a pandemic flu.

Many exercises/run-throughs taking place today also involve what to do once the plane is on the ground - if a px is ill/at risk of spreading illness to others, how to keep additional people (crew, ground EMS) from picking the disease up.... eg, making makeshift quarantines out of hangars, etc. (out of your hands at this point, I'm assuming?)

If anyone thinks of anything else, shoot it my way.... including, if your employer has ignored this altogether!

Animals

I think it is safe to say that any action to detain or quarantine passengers would have to come from public health / law enforcement officials, acting in accordance with laws that permit them to do that sort of thing.

I think it highly improbable that a quarantine could be established prior to landing, in response to a threat which emerged in flight. Unless there was prior information on the threat, the responsible entities probably could not respond that quickly. There would be tremendous institutional inertia on the part of all parties involved to NOT detain a planeload of passengers...

What if you fly an airplane W/O an FA. Like a BE1900. Even say a passenger goes crazy like the PAX on that UAL flight diverted to BOS today? What do you do with no cockpit door?

Positive and negative G. Repeat as needed.