Recently returned from India to the US on a 16-hour non-stop flight. The first two hours were uneventful; I had juice and went right to sleep. Two hours later, I awoke shivering, with severe body pain, headache and slight nausea. Apparently I had caught a bug; but it could not have been Covid, as my RT-PCR had returned a negative result just hours ago.
I wondered what to do. I do not know what kind of protocols airlines have in place for sudden, mid-flight illnesses (not life-threatening emergencies). But in these Covid times, it was probably going to cause severe disruption to the flight, because my symptoms were so similar to the flu. I finally decided to just tough it out, which I did for a grueling 22 hours before I got home. Turned out it was an urinary infection. Took the antibiotics, slept a whole day, and I was fine again. It was the longest flight of my life AND I missed the delicious airline food.
It led me to wonder what might have happened had I mentioned this to a flight attendant.
A kind doctor on board might have carried some antibiotics which might have helped me.
We were only 2 hours out from Mumbai and they might have turned back to drop me off.
We could have re-routed to a Middle East airport to drop me off.
I suppose they would try the first option first, to avoid the immense disruption that occurs when flights have to veer off their flightpath.
Been through similar? What are the airline protocols these days for rather severe but non life-threatening illnesses mid-flight?
I don’t have an answer, but I’m curious and will be watching this thread.
Just wanted to offer my sympathy-- that sounds absolutely awful! I’ve been sick away from home a couple of times and it’s the worst. All you want is your own bed and your own toilet. But sick in mid-air surrounded by strangers, where you can’t even lie down… and many hours ahead of you. What an ordeal!
I think since it wasn’t life threatening, they would have possibly isolated you (especially if there was even a chance of it being covid) and probably checked to see if there was a doctor on board. In any case, if it reasonably seemed like you would survive until the plane landed, it would probably just continue on it’s way, possibly with EMTs waiting at the airport for you. And this probably would have been the case had you alerted someone. Yes, you had a fever and felt like garbage, but in the end it was still just a regular, run of the mill, infection and you weren’t going to get anyone else sick.
If it’s life threatening (ie heart attack, stroke etc), they’ll land the plane.
I’m guessing at least one of my youtubers has done a video on this…and they have.
Note, I’m at work and can’t watch/listen to this right now so it might entirely contradict what I said, or even be off topic, I’m going purely by the titles:
Be the doctor kind or malevolent, I wonder how easily he could carry assorted antibiotics in his carry-on, and assuming he did, how he would address your additional problems should it turn out you experience an adverse reaction to the drug.
On our way back from Europe, our flight was diverted to Heathrow due to a medical emergency. The passengers didn’t get much information about the sufferer, but the rumor was that they had a severe migraine.
The delay was surprisingly short (around an hour), but it was enough for us to miss our connecting flight as Dulles, so they put us up for the night.
Yes, that’s what I thought too. I don’t think any sensible doctor would have offered me antibiotics without knowing what the heck is going on in my body.
Of course I was sarcastic - I just forgot to place the sarcasm icon.
Airline food, especially for flights to/from India is terrible - except for British Airways flights. The British understand Indian tastes a little better. I think Chicken Tikka is their favorite national dish.
I just was lucky enough to fly business class from the west coast to Italy on American. The food was actually quite tasty, both directions. I especially enjoyed the sundae bar they rolled around after the main meal.
I think first- and business-class meals are very different from coach class meals. For one thing, they still serve on china with metal flatware, which I think elevates the experience a bit.
Considerations include how uncomfortable you’re making other passengers - are you quietly sleeping off the flu or are you moaning (loudly) from a kidney stone?
Two hours in means a 4-hour round trip to get back to where you currently are if they were to turn back & drop you at your starting point; that’s a lot of fuel, along with probably needing to take on more food, possibly another crew due to flying hour limits, & possibly having to hotel hundreds of people for a night. It would probably be much shorter & easier to divert to somewhere enroute & drop you off. Considerations there include does the airline already have operations at the diversion airport & even are the pilots familiar with landing procedures for that airport.
I was in the much-touted “Polaris” business class on a United flight. For breakfast they were passing around 2 small flour dumplings and some kind of sauce. India has an extremely rich cuisine, and countless breakfast options, but, you know, everything has to look “international” even if it tastes like garbage.
About 20 years ago I was on a Southwest Airlines flight from Baltimore to Houston. About halfway through the flight, they made an announcement asking if there was a doctor on board. A couple of people responded, and they started working on a man who was apparently having severe chest pain. I do remember they laid him out in the galley area in the back of the plane and gave him oxygen.
He must have been in bad shape because about two minutes later the pilot announced we were diverting to Memphis. At the time we were at cruise altitude, of course. I have never been in a plane that descended that fast. We were on the ground about 10 minutes later. As we landed, I could see an ambulance racing to meet us. They didn’t bother with a jet bridge, but pushed up a stairway instead. Two jack-of-all-trades first responders rushed on board. I say that because they had latex gloves, EMT equipment, and they were armed.
Anyway, they took they guy off in one of those narrow wheelchairs, with his wife following, then loaded him into the ambulance. The pilot announced that we’d be delayed a few more minutes while they looked for their luggage in the baggage hold, and then we took off again. The total time on the ground was less than 30 minutes.
I was on a flight to China that had a medical emergency. The plane sprayed jet fuel on the good people of Alaska, landed in Anchorage, refueled and then continued its journey. It didn’t take that long, either.
Poor hubby started feeling off just before we got on the flight from NJ to Zurich. He got the same stomach bug that took down his sister, one-year-old nephew, and a bunch of other people who attended the birthday party for said nephew.
Having a passenger throwing up isn’t considered an emergency, as many people do so due to air sickness, etc. I actually I don’t remember if he actually threw up, or just felt like he would - this was almost 2 decades ago. At least he wasn’t as sick as his sister - she had both ends running for 24 hours.
Was not happy with the people who brought their feverish child to the party. Of course I hadn’t known about it at the time.
Now we have a rule - no big parties the day of, or the day before we have to fly. Too much can go wrong. And that was before COVID.
Slight tangent: I always wonder about this scenario. Are doctors and nurses and other medical professionals obligated to identify themselves in that situation? What, with all the medical lawsuits waiting to happen, if they gave him some medication he turned out to have an allergy for, and had a severe reaction, or just died right there in the galley, could those good Samaritans be sued? I get that they would ‘want’ to help someone in distress, but are they somehow protected if the captain requests their assistance?
According to this PDF, the standard flight medical kit does not include antibiotics. Individual airlines or even planes could carry additional supplies, but this is what they are required to carry:
But sick in mid-air surrounded by strangers, where you can’t even lie down… and many hours ahead of you. What an ordeal!
