Medical-Legal Topics

I was sleeping on a flight to Brazil when my husband woke me up and told me a passenger needed medical attention. I walked to the back of the plane where a middle age Brazilian man was holding his chest. Through an interpreter, I found out he had chest pain. He looked pale and frightened; his pulse was rapid.

I asked the flight attendant if she could give him oxygen. She produced an oxygen tank and mask; there was nothing else I could do. The ambulance met the plane in Sao Paulo and he vanished from my life.

Be sure to fly with any medication you might need on a an emergency basis- nitroglycerin, inhalers, and so on. The story below made me think of my Brazilian experience. She discusses the medical and legal aspects of rendering care on a plane.

One physician learns firsthand that you are never really off-duty: An emergency on a flight teaches a young doctor that she’s never off duty by Laura Syndman MD

I met Brent after he was dead.

Neighboring passengers later told me that he took one bite of his sandwich and then his head dropped back. It wasn’t until 10 minutes later, when his wife tried unsuccessfully to wake him, that anybody realized anything was wrong.

I was sitting in Business Class with my parents – a trip to France to celebrate my near-completion of my Intern year in Internal Medicine (just 2 weeks of night float still to go). About 15 minutes after passengers were allowed to unbuckle their seatbelts, a flight attendant ran to the front of the plane, grabbed an AED and raced back down the aisle to Coach.

I was sitting across the aisle from my father, who had 30+ years of medical experience under his belt in comparison to my 11.5 months. “Should we go back there?” I asked, but my father said they would call for a doctor if they needed one.

I decided to check it out anyway.

Behind the curtain was a scene I will never forget: a man lying in the aisle with his feet towards the front of the plane, one flight attendant doing mouth-to-mouth, one doing chest compressions and a third attaching the AED pads. I tapped the last flight attendant on the shoulder, “Do you need help? I’m a doctor.”

“We’re fine,” he said, which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting that. Granted, I was in baggy pants, sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt, but was it protocol to decline help from a physician in a medical emergency aboard an aircraft?

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/yes4cay

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