I responded to an inflight emergency once. Well, it wasn't really an emergency if you really think about what the word "emergency" means. If you break it down to emergent, urgent or non-urgent, the situation I responded to was urgent. Meaning she needed attention, but was not at risk of dying.
anyway, the call came out, "is there a doctor, nurse or paramedic on the plane that can assist with a medical emergency?" I turned on my call light because the flight was still ascending so I did not want to just jump up out of my seat. The flight attendant came and indicated where assistance was needed. There was a nurse there and I am a nurse practitioner. The flight attendant asked us our names and our credentials, but she did not ask us to provide documentation of our credentials.
The patient's blood pressure had bottomed out. Turns out it was a woman in her mid-thirties who had experienced a night of pretty heavy drinking the night before, then boarded the plane without recovering or rehydrating after her partying.
Anyway, the flight attendant provided us with the medical response pack that is stored on the plane. Let me tell you...it was something that was not often maintained. The items with expiration dates were current, but the other items had obviously been there way too long. The tourniquet and gloves had dry rotted. The BP cuff was stiff, the stethoscope had been curled up so long that it had a crack in it.
We were able to determine her story, her BP, and to get an idea of what was needed. Ideally, we would have lied her down and propped her feet up, but alas, that is an impossible feat on an airplane. So, we did the best we could. The nurse tried for an IV, but missed (I had her try first because she does this task more often than I do), so I tried a second time...I missed too. I moved out of the way, and the nurse used the last remaining angiocath and popped that baby right into the vein. I spiked a bag of fluids and we taped the bag up to the baggage compartment so we didn't have to stand there holding it the entire time.
By this time, the pilot had the plane descending. The nurse and I had to stand up while the plane landed because there were no more seats available. The people sitting adjacent to the woman had been sent to our seats, and the equipment was taking up the two seats that were left by the woman.
Upon landing, the flight attendant documented our names and credentials. She provided us with our personal items that she had gathered for us and lead us off of the flight so the waiting EMS could gain access to the patient as we were still standing in the isle.
The flight attendant commented to us that she was impressed with how we handled the situation. She said that many times, there is a power struggle between the people that respond. I got the feeling she has had to deal with some egos in emergency situations.
Long story I know, but I can tell you that, at least in my experience, the flight attendants were appropriate to ask my credentials. There was one that stuck near us monitoring the situation. And I expect that there is some sort of protocol in place for the flight attendants to step in when egos get in the way. I've know a lot of doctors in my time who I can imagine would play the hero role and bark orders at anyone that "tried to get in their way". I don't know that it happened in any of the situations noted in the articles, just saying that it isn't hard to imagine.
