On the way to Heathrow today one of the passengers got taken quite ill with what appeared to be a heart condition about 3 or 4 hours out. One of the other passengers was a doctor and he was given a medical kit by the crew and the said kit seemed to have things like an ECG machine.
Made me wonder
What kind of medical equipment would an international flight have on board, such as the one I was on (8 hours over land)? Can they handle a heart attack, it seemed that the flight I was on could.
So if no one answers the “is there a doctor on board”, how much training does the flight crew have to deal with emergencies?
I was surprised that the pilot did not land at a nearby airport, we were near Moscow for instance, it it normal for the pilot to continue the flight or do they usually land if necessary.
I noticed that when we landed we were sent to a gate almost immdietly and paramedics came on board. I suppose the plane called ahead. But that said, how would the person (who was stechered off) go through immigration, or would that be taken care of?
I imagine the answer is “it depends”. Depends on what government regulates their airlines and what they demand they have.
For US planes there is a medical bag on board containing a variety of things. Obviously space limitations make the bag more a fancy first aid kit but it does contain more than just band aids. I think portable defibrillators are even common now (thing that shocks a patient to restart their heart).
The flight crew, in the US, has some first aid training but they are not paramedics or doctors obviously. They will ask if a doctor is aboard and let the doctor take over if one is available. If not they will do the best they can and contact ground control which will provide a doctor to talk the plane’s staff through procedures to help the passenger. If that is not available (e.g. they are in the middle of the Pacific) they will do their best with the minimal medical training they have.
A plane will re-route to a nearest airport in a medical emergency. It is up to the pilot to request it and he/she will do so based on the assessment of the patient. If the emergency is not critical they will continue to their destination. If the passenger is already dead they will continue to their destination (I think).
I have no idea what they do about customs when a person is pulled off the plane in an emergency. I’d guess they’d zip the person to a hospital and collect the passport and such and hand them over to the appropriate authorities. Someone else would have to collect the bags.
As an anecdote my brother was flying with his SO, who is a doctor, on an international flight. My brother ate some almonds which his whole life never caused him problems. This time he had an allergic reaction which, for nuts, can be quite severe. My brother’s SO called the stewardess and told her he was a doctor and needed the plane’s medical bad immediately. She complied (and as far as I know took him at his word…not sure if doctors carry an, “I am a doctor” official card). I think he got adrenaline out of the bag but been so long ago I do not remember. He got something out of the bag, administered it to my brother and in short order my brother was fine (if a bit worse for wear). The plane continued to London without being re-routed.
Simple first aid stuff, bandages, antiseptic, etc., plus simple OTC meds, plus stethoscope, thermometer, & blood pressure cuff. Also multiple medical oxygen bottles, masks, etc. The flight attendants (F/As) know how to use all that stuff and will do so when needed. They’ll also ask for help from doctors, nurses, and paramedics.
Some simple non-narcotic prescription drugs & injectables. Insulin for diabetics, adrenaline or ??? for heart attacks, atropine or ??? for allergic reactions, etc. Procedures require the F/As to find a licensed doctor or nurse to get access to and use this stuff. The F/As don’t have training beyond that, but if one of them happened to moonlight as a nurse they’d be OK to use the stuff.
One or more portable AEDs (automatic defibrillators). As with item 1 above, the F/As know how to use them, but will enlist medical professionals if time’s available.
Whenever there is a medical incident on board, there’s a pre-planned process that goes on where one F/A deals with the patient, one tries to enlist help from any trained passengers, and one keeps the cockpit informed of the state of play.
The company command center is notified immediately. We have data link, sat phone, and a couple other ways of staying in constant touch. There are dedicated emergency medical advice companies that have MDs on duty 24/7. We’ can be talking to an ER doctor within a couple minutes. These folks speak both airline & medical. Ideally we can get an MD in the back talking to an MD on the ground.
Between our command center and them, they can readily determine the closest suitable airport / hospital combo for the problem at hand. AS well as assess whether diverting is totally unnecessary, nice to have, or need to have.
Diverting a domestic flight costs about $50K. Diverting a 747 halfway across the ocean could easily cost $250K. So we don’t do it willy nilly. If it’s gotta be done to save a life we’ll glady do it. But for somethign like a diabetic who goes shocky & comatose and then revives with oxygen & insulin, there’s not much point. They’ll survive equally well with us continuing to the destination.
If we do have a real medical problem the medic folks and the command center will have notified the relavant hospital, paramedic /ambulance, and airport folks. We’ll have ATC traffic prioity throughout the flight, a guaranteed-open gate, and the paramedic folks will be there wating for us. We’ll leave the pasengers seated after parking & take the paramedics on board to get the patient off ASAP. Normally the ambulance will be sitting at the base of the jetway and after they maunever the stretcher down the stairs, they’re off to the hospital.
I have no clue how customs and immigration is handled. But hospitals emergency rooms deal with prisoners the police bring in, so I imagine they could use a similar secure room until the appropraite government agency can send somebody over. Or they just skip it.
In the discussion about the Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic a few years ago (between Brazil and France) I thought part of the problem was they were in a place where communication was not possible. Hence the big mystery over how they disappeared.
If there are these communicate anywhere abilities how did that modern plane not manage to tell someone they had problems?
All the things I mention are used by people to talk to other people. Not for computers to automatically talk to other computers. The guys who were flying the Air France plane were very busy for the 4-ish minutes it took for them & everybody else to be killed.
The very *last *thing on the list of stuff to do when we have a mechanical or control problem is tell somebody about it. There’s not a damn thing they can do except distract us from solving the problem at hand.
Once we’re no longer in danger of immediately falling out of the sky, *then *we have time to enlist outside help as necessary for navigating to a safe landing spot.
The Air France guys never got that far before the ocean arrived.