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What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

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Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#31

Post by miles_matthias »

Okay, I'll share random doctor flight story - last week some family friends were flying to Hawaii for vacation, and a man across the isle said he had been on vacation for several weeks and didn't bring enough heart medicine. He said he would just get some more when he got home, but halfway through the flight he slumped down in his chair, unresponsive. There was a doctor on the flight that used a stethoscope to find there was no heartbeat. (Not sure if the doctor had his own stethoscope or if it was in an on board kit.) The doctor just looked up at the flight attendant and shook his head. Luckily, this flight was not to Hawaii. It was just a layover from Houston to LAX, so they were able to land in Phoenix to have a medical response team take the passenger off. Apparently when they took him off, they didn't use a board or anything - one man grabbed his wrists, another his ankles, and they carried him off, but they couldn't completely lift him so his butt was dragging on the floor down the isle. I thought that was a little weird.

Also, is it legal to just put a blanket on the guy, pretend he's sleeping, and then deal with it when you get to your destination? Our friends missed their connecting flight to Hawaii in LAX because of this ordeal.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#33

Post by TylerE »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #30
joezydeco wrote: post #21

I'm curious if insulin is a standard part of the medkit. I was on a transatlantic crossing once with a coworker who went into diabetic shock (that's another long story). A nurse was onboard the flight but no insulin. We had to divert and my coworker was laid up in a Newfoundland hospital for 3 days.

Why would a diabetic person not travel with insulin?

Many diabetics don't KNOW that they are.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#34

Post by stephencanon »

My wife is a surgeon; while we were flying to Morocco last spring, a man on the plane accidentally put himself into a diabetic coma. A nurse was sitting next to him and thought that he was having a heart attack. The attendants called for a doctor; my wife recognized the actual issue, and revived him by rubbing honey on the inside of his mouth and gums (the onboard medical kit had nothing of use beyond rubber gloves).

The other passengers on the flight actually did applaud her, which was cute, but I think they mostly did it because it meant that the flight didn't need to be diverted to Heathrow.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#35

Post by joezydeco »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #30
joezydeco wrote: post #21

I'm curious if insulin is a standard part of the medkit. I was on a transatlantic crossing once with a coworker who went into diabetic shock (that's another long story). A nurse was onboard the flight but no insulin. We had to divert and my coworker was laid up in a Newfoundland hospital for 3 days.

Why would a diabetic person not travel with insulin?

Pretty much a collision of unfortunate events. We were at a work function until 2am in London and returned to our room to find it had been robbed. The thieves took his bag which contained his insulin kit.

So now it's 3am GMT and he can't reach his doctor in the States. We're supposed to leave at 8am for the flight home. No pharmacy is open and even if they were, they wouldn't help him. Nurses at Heathrow couldn't help him either.

So he decided to risk it and see if he could make it all the way home without having any trouble. He went into shock 4 hours into the flight.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#36

Post by tcgv »

ilamont wrote: post #14
citricsquid wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 was that due to the altitude or something else?

The stricken passenger had the option of using the restroom, but for unknown reasons could not urinate. They stretched him out on a row of seats which seemed to help the pain, but from what I recall was unable to go until they reached the destination airport. The total trip time was about three hours.

"but for unknown reasons could not urinate"

Maybe that guy suffered from the Shy bladder syndrome [1].

[1] http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Shy+bladder+...

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#37

Post by e40 »

miles_matthias wrote: post #31

Okay, I'll share random doctor flight story - last week some family friends were flying to Hawaii for vacation, and a man across the isle said he had been on vacation for several weeks and didn't bring enough heart medicine. He said he would just get some more when he got home, but halfway through the flight he slumped down in his chair, unresponsive. There was a doctor on the flight that used a stethoscope to find t…

It's a little surprising to me they didn't even attempt CPR.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#38

Post by niekmaas »

e40 wrote: post #37
miles_matthias wrote: post #31

Okay, I'll share random doctor flight story - last week some family friends were flying to Hawaii for vacation, and a man across the isle said he had been on vacation for several weeks and didn't bring enough heart medicine. He said he would just get some more when he got home, but halfway through the flight he slumped down in his chair, unresponsive. There was a doctor on the flight that used a stethoscope to find t…

It's a little surprising to me they didn't even attempt CPR.

Out of hospital CPR has very slim survival chances. Being on a plane will result in at least 30 minutes of CPR even before an ambulance can take over. Chances on surviving that are extremely low. Therefore I can see why the doctor on the plane decided not to perform CPR. I have a medical degree myself btw.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#39

Post by supwiggles »

niekmaas wrote: post #38
e40 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little surprising to me they didn't even attempt CPR.

Out of hospital CPR has very slim survival chances. Being on a plane will result in at least 30 minutes of CPR even before an ambulance can take over. Chances on surviving that are extremely low. Therefore I can see why the doctor on the plane decided not to perform CPR. I have a medical degree myself btw.

This +10. Out of the 11 out of hospital arrests that I went to as a Paramedic (in a 6 month period), only 1 of them survived.

Ironically, the one who survived was a prisoner who had cut his own throat. He had pretty much bled out by the time we got there, with a tiny little junctional on the monitor. Today he has 0 deficits, and it is like the event never occurred.

Re: What happens when you are the doctor on the airplane?

#40

Post by supwiggles »

moioci wrote: post #28
donretag wrote: post #25

"The medikit was actually really comprehensive ... that contained ... even morphine." I am surprised that it contained morphine. Pain killers would not help much in resolving whatever medical issue is occurring. Besides, is it not dangerous to report the fact that morphine is available on a flight? Some medkits are easily accessible and can be taken when the flight attendants are not looking.

When you have a myocardial infarction or acute pulmonary edema inflight, you'll be glad there's morphine available.

It is amazing how well morphine can work, and how utterly useless it can be at other times. I found it to be incredibly helpful during the AMI cases, especially for putting the patient as ease, especially when they understand the gravity of the STEMI that they are currently experiencing.

We went to a fractured tib/fib (Football injury) and we loaded him up with the maximum dose over the course of treatment (50 minutes or so) and it didn't even touch the sides.

Looking back we probably should have called for the IC guys and done some ketamine + realignment.

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