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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?

#191

Post by coldpie »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #57
joezydeco wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hel…

Ouch. Were I ever to become diabetic (and manage to figure out my fear of needles), I'm pretty sure I'd carry around spare insulin, like an epi-pen. (Is it something that can be carried around trivially? Or does it need to be refridgerated? You know what, maybe I'll just eat healthier.)

> Were I ever to become diabetic (and manage to figure out my fear of needles)

You get over it pretty quick when it is literally life-or-death, trust me ;-)

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

#192

Post by philwelch »

lambda wrote: post #145
TillE wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#1 would probably be asking for a pilot. There have been a number of tests on simulators, and pilots licensed for smaller aircraft have a surprisingly low chance of being able to land a commercial jet.

I have heard someone tell a story about that happening once. They said that the cabin crew announced that they would be playing a game; they would call out an item, and give a free drink to the first person who could find that in their carry on. The first couple of items were fairly standard things; "a fountain pen", "a camera", etc. Then they got to "a commercial pilots license". Someone actually did raise their han…

That's not even fair, because the commercial pilot wouldn't have been able to collect his free drink!

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

#193

Post by philwelch »

cperciva wrote: post #189
benth wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't leave us hanging :) What was the problem?

The AV server had been replaced after there were problems with it on the previous Vancouver-Sydney flight (the cabin crew told me this) but it looked like the DHCP server had not been updated with the new MAC address (or the replacement server hadn't been programmed to use the same MAC address as the one it replaced). I considered sending DHCP responses to the server myself, but decided that injecting traffic would b…

> inadequate firewalling between IFE systems and aeronautical control systems

How is this possible? Why do they even need to be on the same network?

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

#194

Post by philwelch »

FireBeyond wrote: post #90
JshWright wrote: post #16

The medical director of my paramedic program used to work for a hospital that provided medical control for a number of major airlines (generally speaking, even when they ask for a physician on a plane, they're also calling the airline's 'on call' doctor as well). His scariest stories weren't due to the criticality of the patient, but rather the incompetence of the provider on board the plane (to the point that he, on…

One of my EMS instructors: "On scene, any person claiming to be a physician should be assumed to be a dermatologist or proctologist until proven otherwise."

It could be worse--psychiatrists are also physicians.

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

#195

Post by loceng »

jychang wrote: post #177
loceng wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a better way on HN to know someone's other disciplines. They're usually hidden out of context.

I like reddit's Askscience's method of having a short tag next to the username. This could be helpful.

It could be interesting. I wonder how it could influence bias on the reader though if it was that direct. I more would like to be able to explore a person deeper if they've said something interesting, etc..

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

#196

Post by Dove »

philwelch wrote: post #193
cperciva wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AV server had been replaced after there were problems with it on the previous Vancouver-Sydney flight (the cabin crew told me this) but it looked like the DHCP server had not been updated with the new MAC address (or the replacement server hadn't been programmed to use the same MAC address as the one it replaced). I considered sending DHCP responses to the server myself, but decided that injecting traffic would b…

> inadequate firewalling between IFE systems and aeronautical control systems How is this possible? Why do they even need to be on the same network?

I didn't work on that particular system, but I can say from experience that systems on an airplane are a lot more interconnected than you might expect, just from seeing them as a passenger. There probably is a sequence diagram somewhere that says, "Inform pilot of movie progress, reduce intercom volume, dim cabin lights, reset passenger overhead lights, consult schedule to determine selected movie, lower projector screen, play movie." And there are probably similar diagrams for landing, maintenance, encountering problems, and so forth.

Furthermore, the IFE might not need to talk to critical control systems, but they both might need to talk to some of the same other systems. Cabin lights seem like a likely candidate. Displays for the pilot, too. And maybe maintenance fault logs.

It can be a real hassle to have totally isolated systems on different networks. You can do it, but you need a Good Reason. The easy thing, from an engineering perspective, is to make it so everything can talk to everything.

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

#197

Post by cstross »

rdl wrote: post #127
cstross wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, IIRC insulin is classified as a Pharmacy-Only medicine in the UK, rather than Prescription-Only, meaning that it can be sold by a pharmacist without requiring a prescription, to address exactly this sort of situation. Even if they've reclassified it as a POM in the 25 years since I stopped doing that stuff for a living, if you could have found a pharmacy in the UK, then under the Emergency Sale and Supply r…

What is your favorite sci-fi story involving a pharmacist?

I don't think I've ever read one. And I'm not planning on writing one any time soon. (The professional life of a pharmacist is, ideally, extremely boring. If it isn't, someone's going to be very ill, if not dead.)

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

#198

Post by roguecoder »

logjam wrote: post #74

I was half-dozing on a Southwestern flight when a stewardess came on the PA system calling for any physician to identify themselves. I spoke up, and the crew directed me toward the back. They already had this incredible medical kit opened in the aisle. I mean they had everything ....ACLS drugs, defibrillator, suction, a complete mini-pharmacy, and what looked like a few plastic-7 wound and/or trauma kits at the least…

My father is a doctor who travels a lot and he loved it when the call went out for a doctor. Most of the time it was stress-related, and he'd tell the stewardess that the patient needed a calmer environment, so was there a spare seat in first class? Then, of course, he would accompany them to keep an eye out for anything really wrong.

He'd been an army doc and was flying around as a volunteer physician, so he was qualified if anything bad did happen, but most of the time it just involved sitting in first class and talking with the patient. There are worse ways to spend a flight.

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

#199

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

coin wrote: post #183
lambda wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard someone tell a story about that happening once. They said that the cabin crew announced that they would be playing a game; they would call out an item, and give a free drink to the first person who could find that in their carry on. The first couple of items were fairly standard things; "a fountain pen", "a camera", etc. Then they got to "a commercial pilots license". Someone actually did raise their han…

The flight time requirement for a commercial pilot is only 250 hours. All flight instructors are commercial pilots. They are more common than you think.

Also, isn't there a pretty big distinction (even just in terms of required flight hours) for Commercial versus Airline Transport (ATP)? ISTR that ATP required at least 1k hours.

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

#200

Post by bdonlan »

TillE wrote: post #136
mkuhn wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I am intrigued and want to hear the other four.

#1 would probably be asking for a pilot. There have been a number of tests on simulators, and pilots licensed for smaller aircraft have a surprisingly low chance of being able to land a commercial jet.

Unassisted, perhaps, but what about with radio instructions? Modern aircraft with autoland systems mean that if you can punch buttons you'd probably be okay, I'd think. It might not be 'by-the-book', but looking at a video of the process it doesn't seem too complex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIaMALJjOEc
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