What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

An interesting interview. I wonder if he gets upset if people call him Shirley?

If you are interested in medical "hacks" on long-distance flights, the award has to go to two doctors who were on a 1995 British Airways flight from Hong Kong to London when a patient had trouble breathing. They determined that the patient suffered a collapsed lung, so they made an incision in her chest, and used a coat hanger, brandy, and a tube from a medical kit to drain the lung. As I recall the story, there was also a nurse who assisted but I can only find the AP story which references the two doctors.(1)

I also have a relative who is a doctor/med school professor who does a lot of traveling, and has had to assist the crew three times with in-flight emergencies. One was a heart attack, one was deteriorating condition of an unknown cause (the flight was diverted to evacuate this man) and the third was a guy who had intense bladder pains mid-flight which turned out to be the result of downing a huge quantity of beer before the flight and being unable to urinate.

1. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZBxOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p...

You and I both, brother.

To paraphrase the rules, if you see a submission that doesn't belong, just flag it and move on. If enough people agree, it'll go away.

My wife was on a flight from Taipei to LAX when they called for a doctor. She didn't see whether or not a doctor responded, but there were no further calls or announcements after that. Later when she went to the bathroom she saw a body bag on the floor near the bathrooms. When the flight arrived there were police waiting. Nobody could leave the plane until they were done with the body. No details were given to any of the passengers.