Woman dies onboard airplane with faulty equipment

[AnthonyM83]

I wonder if the doctor actually said her pulse was too weak for the AED or if its a misunderstanding of what he said by the reporter who wrote the piece.

Was that a way to explain to the lay person that the heart rhythm wasn't shockable?

[Richard B the EMT]

Someone refresh my memory on this: What is the expected shelf life of a bottle of Nitro pills?

My reason for asking is, if the presumed seal on the medical box is not broken, how long before anyone checks any of the meds for an expiration date, if at all?

[Smitster_911]

There is no way that if you go into cardiac arrest on an airplane that you are going to survive to landing unless you have a shockable rhythm and even then it's no guarantee.

There is also no probable way with even a cardiologist, a trauma surgeon and 12 paramedics and 15 nurses on board that you can survive a cardiac arrest.

[Chief1C]

I've purchased milk crates of misc junk from scrap and bone yards. Apparently Delta Airlines keeps three first aid kits full of unitized bandages, etc., and one kit of equal size with a BP Cuff/Scope, glass ampules of Benadryl and Epinephrine, a bottle of nitro pills, misc. syringes, needles w/ out caths, a large 500mg syringe of Dextrose, a few airways and some other misc items. There was a paper in the box telling when to use it, how much to give, and to call a medical director at a centralized facility when the items are to be used.

[akflightmedic]

I fly international, a lot.

I have encountered many emergencies during flight. I usually sink down in my seat when they call for help over the PA, unless someone doesn't answer by the 2nd or 3rd call.

A few times, after boarding, I have informed the attendant in my area of my certification level. They do write this information down and will come to you discretely instead of calling for help over the PA. It prevents gawkers, embarrassment and a lot of people from getting worked up over nothing.

I have been used several times and usually don't mind as it does have its perks depending on which airline you are on.

On two of the occasions, when I was asked for help, it was a non life threatening situation, so they asked to see my licenses. They then wrote down all the information and allowed me access to the patient. I also had to sign a form that made me a "temporary" employee of the airline after they verified my certs. After aiding the patient with their consent, I then terminated my employment. No, they do not pay you but they do find a way to upgrade your experience either on this flight or a future flight. My first glass of Dom was "payment for services rendered". I found it ironic that they gave me alcohol when there was still 5 hours of the flight left...LOL.

I have also worked a code and a syncope patient during flight. The code was futile and after exhausting resources, the process was to move the body to 1st class and cover it. It is silly to divert or reroute simply to offload a body. It would cost the airline way too much money to do this kid of thing and from a business perspective, it is a smart decision.

The syncope patient was fun. It got me moved to 1st class, so I could be near the patient in case something else happened. During my assessment of the syncope patient, the attendant called the airlines medical control. I had to tell the Doc my findings, what I did or intended to do and whether or not we should continue the course or divert. This made me nervous, cause I suddenly realized the importance of my decision. I could divert and offload and screw up several hundred other people or I could declare her stable and continue the course; and if I declared her stable and we continue, what do I do if she becomes unstable. Very big decisions to be made. We stayed the course and the patient was fine. Upon landing the medics came on board and treated me like shit and didn't care what report I had to give them, but whatever.....

[Scaramedic]

Upon landing the medics came on board and treated me like shit and didn't care what report I had to give them, but whatever.....

That was you? Sorry I was having a bad day and the smell of Dom on your breath was making me thirsty.

[Just Plain Ruff]

AK I too treated a patient on a flight in Detroit. We were on the feeder runway waiting for clearance and the announcement came over needed help

I offered and went back to the patient. There was a physician on board and this patient was in true trouble. The doctor insisted on laying her down with fulminant pulmonary edema. Our flight had been waiting to take off for over 30 mins.

The physician also wanted to give her low flow Oxygen.

I identified myself and asked why she wanted her to lay down and the doctor said that this was the best course of treatment.

I politely argued and we can to an agreement, a nice passenger sat behind the lady and kept her at a 45 degree angle.

WE opened the oxygen, put the AED on her and I was getting ready to get the ALS kit out with the IV when the flight attendant told me the ambulance was pulling up. At no time did they ever tell use detroit EMS was on the way. We originally thought we were going to take off.

The medics came on board, took over care, took my report and they weren't really wanting to hear what I had to say and I said ok you an figure out all the stuff that happened later.

I was already in firstclass but i was told I could be given extra frequent flyer miles or other perks but I refused.

I was told by someone that if you accept perks or free flights then you become a defacto airline employee and if the person sues then you can be named since you feasibly are an employee

If you are not considered a defacto airline employee then the good sam act applie but it doesn't apply if they consider you an employee of the airline.

[frontcrawl]

Could someone more familiar with commercial aircraft answer this related question:

Supposedly, there were at least 2 portable Oxygen tanks and associated setups on board the jet.

Now, from the few times I have flown, the cabin crews always give the safety lecture, including putting on that mask when it drops down from the ceiling, before assisting your seatmates in putting theirs on, should the occasion arise.

I remember, from the summer I worked for Allied Aviation Services, at JFK, seeing a maintainance crew change a really large O2 tank, used for these emergency masks.

Now, if the portables were really empty, is it possible for the flight crew (the guys in the cockpit, not the cabin attendants) to manually trigger the masks to drop, starting the flow of the Oxygen? Or was that just a dramatic device used on, I think, the "Quincy, ME" show?

I guess you could try to get one of the portable crew cylinders, wouldn't be such a pain to deal with. Neither the crew cylinders in the back nor the passenger masks have a very high flow rate, something on the order of 2 lpm, maybe 4 for the portables.

[JimH]

You beat me to it with your link, Dust- in addition, here are the sections of the FARs (now called CFRs) covering oxygen, and emergency training and duties of aircrew.

FARS make for extremely boring reading I don't know how I managed 20 weeks of them!- I am glad I spend most of my time with Part 43 and 65.

Relevent sections are CFR 121.574, 121.801, 121.805 and 121.803.

They leave a lot to the airline which would most likely cover handling of medical emergencies in the company operations specification which must be in compliance with the CFRs.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-....24&idno=14

Medical oxygen in a commercial aircraft is stored in bottles, but the emergency oxygen for the drop down masks is supplied by oxygen candles which burn, giving off oxygen- it supplies the whole system, all masks and is only able to supply oxygen long enough to decend to a survivable altitude- a matter of minutes only.

[JimH]

Correction-

There are some gasseous systems, but most I have dealt with are chemical-

Here is a link to an item on on-board oxygen systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_oxygen_system

A portable botle would probably be your best option