- Medical emergencies onboard airplanes are semi-frequent occurrences in the US that require assistance from professionals that may not be traveling on board.
- One company, STAT-MD, offers a communication system that connects in-flight crew with emergency room physicians on the ground to assist with diagnosis, treatment, and the determination to divert the aircraft.
- The company's system was used on a Delta flight where a passenger was concerned about coming into contact with the novel coronavirus.
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While flight attendants and flight crew are trained in basic first aid, some medical emergencies require a trained medical professional such as a doctor or nurse.
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"Is there a doctor on board?"
In-flight medical emergencies are common occurrences in the world's skies with any number of medical scenarios ranging from a passenger suddenly feeling ill to an in-flight pregnancy possibly occurring during a journey, turning airline staff into first responders.
A report published in the National Center for Biotechnical Information, part of the National Institutes of Health under the US National Library of Medicine, estimated that in-flight emergencies occur once every 600 flights.
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Especially as today's largest aircraft are able to carry upwards of 400 passengers and fly further than ever, airlines need to consider that such an emergency may happen and in-flight crew cannot be expected to remedy every issue with only minimal medical training provided by their airlines.
When faced with such a scenario, cabin crews would normally call for a doctor with the hopes that an onboard professional could investigate the emergency and make a determination on whether the plane needed to make an emergency landing.
Physicians, however, can now attend to patients without physically being in the same room, or even on the same airplane as technology has made it possible to connect in-flight crews with doctors on the ground. Emergency hotlines onboard aircraft ensure that every medical emergency has a trained professional offering guidance and, in some cases, assisting with treatment.
Take a look at how one company provides airlines with doctors sometimes thousands of miles away to attend to potentially fatal emergencies.
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