Flightster

Air Emergency

• by Bobby Laurie
• on October 1st, 2010
• 3 Comments

Most passengers forget that flight attendants aren’t primarily on-board to serve you a coke and constantly remind you to fasten your seat belt and turn your phones off. In fact, we’re also there for your safety.. But luckily, you never realize that until something happens.

The majority of our training program that we must complete before being allowed to set foot on an airplane revolves around safety. A big portion of training is focused on evacuating an aircraft in the event of an emergency land or water landing, but a portion just as large is spent on medical emergencies.

Flight attendants are trained in noticing, diagnosing and treating ailments on the plane. Think about it, if something happens to you or a loved one at 35,000ft, whose going to help them? We are.

We are trained and certified in CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) and usage of an AED (automatic external defibrillator) in the event a passenger suffers from a heart attack. Additionally, we’re trained to assist passengers who faint, are diabetic, have a seizure, are hypoxic and a any other ailment which occurs once in flight.

Once you pass ground training (which ranges in length from four to six weeks) you quickly learn that oxygen and orange juice (O&O) fix just about every situation. It helps with the passengers who faint because they have a hangover and haven’t eaten anything to those diabetics that have low blood sugar. Don’t misunderstand me, there are those situations though that are more severe.

MedLink helps us deal with situations that we haven’t seen before, or those situations that are more severe than just some O&O. MedLink is a company that’s based in Phoenix, Arizona inside of St. Joseph’s Medical Center Downtown. When an issue arises that we need a doctor to walk us through, or we need help diagnosing we fill out a form called the “MedLink Check-list.” The form asks particular questions pertaining to the passenger and their situation. We then pass this form up to or relay the information to the pilots. They then radio MedLink and further pass the information along. A doctor will then communicate with the pilots (or if the airline has configured the cabin with a telephone or radio jack the cabin team will talk directly to the doctor) a plan of action to follow to ensure the passenger survives the situation.

There are some passengers, however, who know how this system works and try to use it to their advantage. Most airlines don’t allow passengers to carry-on their own oxygen bottles should they require. There is no fool-proof plan in place to ensure their bottles are suited to fly. Most airlines will allow particular types of “portable oxygen concentrators” if a passenger has access to one. But, for those passengers who want to fly and choose to fly without their oxygen they put themselves and the crew in a tough situation.

On a recent Las Vegas flight about two hours away from landing a passenger asked one of my crewmembers specifically for oxygen and stated he “had a tightness in his chest.” A my crewmember ran to the front, notified me of the situation and as I ran over to the passenger, she went and got the oxygen. I sat down next to the passenger and started talking to him. “Have you had this problem before? Are you on any prescriptions that you haven’t taken? How old are you?” He answered favorably to every question. He hasn’t had this happen before, he wasn’t on any medications and he was in his late 50s. As we got the oxygen on him I had the third flight attendant sit with him while I took the flight attendant that he initially spoke with to the front of the cabin. I thought it was strange that he specifically asked for oxygen.

She agreed. I’ve never had anyone ask, up front, for oxygen. Usually they just run down their symptoms and are in a panic that they’re not feeling right.. No one is ever calm, cool, collected and says “I need oxygen.”

When we returned to his seat, we investigated further and found out that he is and always has been a heavy smoker and needed oxygen on a regular basis. For some reason he chose to withhold that information during our initial interview. What he didn’t know was, that because he “complained” of “chest pain” we contacted MedLink. We wanted to make sure a Doctor was standing by the event we had to start CPR or use the AED. MedLink decided that because he was suffering from chest pain that they wanted a medic to meet the aircraft upon our arrival to ensure he was okay. Well, we got a medic and then some.

All because he neglected to tell us off the bat that he usually needed oxygen five police officers boarded the aircraft when we landed to ensure that our passengers remained seated while two EMTs boarded to assist our passenger. He got a lot more attention then he bargained for. But, for liability purposes MedLink needed to ensure that our passenger was feeling normal since he had an “issue” in flight.

If you ever find yourself in need of medical assistance on board please don’t hesitate to ask your flight attendants right away. They are trained to handle these situations and have resources on hand in the event it is something severe. But also, please be honest when they ask you for further information. A lot of resources, personnel, and nerves are at work when you require assistance.

Bobby Laurie

Bobby Laurie, author of the book Planely Speaking and television travel correspondent, currently works as a Flight Attendant at a low-cost airline and as a freelance journalist. After graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Technology with a degree in Mass Media Communication, Bobby combined his passion for both journalism and travel by writing about the travel industry through his insider knowledge and personal experiences. You can read Bobby's blog about being a flight attendant and the airline industry by visiting UpUpAndAGay.com.