{"id":594714,"date":"2023-01-06T09:52:07","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T15:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/during-in-flight-emergencies-sometimes-airlines-medical-kits-fall-short\/"},"modified":"2023-01-06T09:52:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T15:52:07","slug":"during-in-flight-emergencies-sometimes-airlines-medical-kits-fall-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/during-in-flight-emergencies-sometimes-airlines-medical-kits-fall-short\/","title":{"rendered":"During In-Flight Emergencies, Sometimes Airlines\u2019 Medical Kits Fall Short"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In March, a Frontier Airlines flight was headed from Phoenix to Las Vegas when a female passenger stopped breathing. The flight attendant yelled in the cabin for help.<\/p>\n

A passenger who was trained as a wilderness first responder, Seth Coley, jumped into action<\/a> and found the woman was unresponsive and had a weak pulse. Coley dug through the plane\u2019s medical kit but couldn\u2019t find<\/a> an oropharyngeal airway, a tool that was supposed to be there and that he needed to help the woman breathe. Instead, he cleared the airway by manipulating her neck.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Coley sent a message to Denver-based Frontier Airlines via an online customer service form: \u201cI saved somebody\u2019s life on one of your flights,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI would like to speak about the medical kit you guys have on your flights. You are missing some very valuable and simple things. She almost died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Americans are flying at levels reaching pre-pandemic numbers<\/a>. While covid-19 ushered in new health and cleaning protocols designed to make airplane travel safer, incidents like Coley\u2019s raise questions about airlines\u2019 readiness for medical emergencies because of incomplete or insufficient medical kits and the training of flight crews, who often rely on other passengers in emergencies.<\/p>\n

Frontier did not respond to KHN\u2019s requests for comment about that incident or its emergency kits. But Coley\u2019s experience illustrates the risks travelers take every time they board a flight. For every 20,000 passengers who take a flight on a U.S.-based airline, there is one medical event \u2014 defined as any health-related incident, not only emergencies \u2014 according to estimates from airplane medical services company MedAire.<\/p>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial aircraft to carry at least one sealed emergency medical kit containing a minimum of 25 specified instruments and medications<\/a>, plus first-aid kits and automated external defibrillators. But the FAA does not track data on the use of those kits during in-flight medical emergencies. Instead, the agency leaves it to the airlines to inspect the kits and replace them if the seals are broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring complete, sealed emergency medical kits are present is part of the cabin crew\u2019s preflight inspection,\u201d FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor said in a statement.<\/p>\n

But, as Coley and other passengers who have responded to an in-flight emergency have found out, an item required in a medical kit can sometimes be missing. Some items the FAA doesn\u2019t require, such as the overdose reversal drug naloxone, are carried voluntarily by some airlines. The agency has issued guidance recommending items to add<\/a> to the kits, but they are not yet mandated.<\/p>\n

Gregor said the FAA investigates all reports of issues with medical kits and ensures any concerns are addressed. He did not respond to a KHN request for details on the number of reports investigated, their outcomes, or whether the emergencies described in this article were among those investigated.<\/p>\n

In June, Boston surgeon Dr. Andrea Merrill was aboard a Delta Air Lines flight when she assisted in a medical emergency and found the kit fell short of what she needed.<\/p>\n

It needs \u201ca glucometer, epi pen, and automatic blood pressure cuffs \u2014 it\u2019s impossible to hear with a disposable stethoscope in the air,\u201d Merrill tweeted to Delta<\/a> after the incident. \u201cPlease improve this for passenger safety!\u201d<\/p>\n

After Merrill\u2019s tweet went viral, Delta followed up with her<\/a>, saying it would switch to automatic blood pressure cuffs and \u201creal\u201d stethoscopes, as well as consider glucometers at gates. Merrill declined an interview request.<\/p>\n

KHN asked U.S. airlines to detail their medical emergency protocols and the contents of their medical kits. Seven responded with limited information: Alaska, Allegiant, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country, and United. All said that their kits meet or exceed FAA requirements and that they train their staff to respond to medical emergencies. Many airlines also contract with a MedAire service called MedLink<\/a> that connects flight crews with a medical professional on the ground in an in-flight emergency.<\/p>\n

Allegiant officials said passengers with medical conditions should not assume their planes will have everything they need in an emergency. \u201cAlthough our crews are trained to respond to a wide array of unplanned medical emergencies, we want to remind readers who have anticipated medical needs to bring their own medical supplies in carry-on luggage and not rely on aircraft emergency equipment,\u201d Allegiant spokesperson Andrew Porrello said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Delta, along with American, Frontier, and Spirit, did not respond to requests for comment. A 2019 article on the Delta website<\/a> said its flight attendants are given training in first aid and CPR. Additionally, Delta wrote that its medical equipment exceeds FAA requirements. The airline mentioned it uses STAT-MD, a service that lets flight crews consult with trained personnel at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.<\/p>\n

The FAA requires flight attendants to receive specific medical training<\/a>, but medical professionals who have intervened as passengers during an in-flight emergency said the crew is not always quick to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cPassengers believe that there are probably more safeguards in place than there actually are,\u201d said Dr. Comilla Sasson, a Denver-area emergency physician and associate clinical professor at the University of Colorado.<\/p>\n

Sasson was on a United Airlines flight in 2018 when a passenger passed out. When she volunteered to help, crew members asked for proof that she was a doctor<\/a> as she mobilized to check the passenger\u2019s vital signs. Sasson questioned the extent to which crew members are trained to help in medical emergencies, saying other health care providers have told her about their own experiences of aiding a passenger in need while the flight personnel stood aside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting to me that the airlines really kind of depend on the kindness of strangers in a lot of ways, much more so than I would think,\u201d Sasson said.<\/p>\n

The goodwill of a fellow passenger is something Bay Area resident Meera Mani is thankful for after a 2011 experience. She was on a United flight from Toronto to San Francisco when her now-deceased father, then in his 80s, began showing concerning symptoms: The right side of his face and arm drooped. Worried her dad was having a stroke, Mani shouted for help but was frustrated by flight attendants\u2019 slow response.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then finally, I said: \u2018Is there a doctor on the flight?\u2019\u201d Mani recounted.<\/p>\n

There was. The doctor used a defibrillator to stabilize her father.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very clear to me that the [flight] staff were completely flummoxed,\u201d Mani said. \u201cThey had the equipment, they took it out, they gave it to him, but the doctor took care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

United helped organize an ambulance to meet Mani and her father on the ground at the San Francisco airport and later called to see if her dad was OK. He ended up being diagnosed with a condition that could lead to fainting.<\/p>\n

MedAire, which runs the MedLink consulting service, said it covers around 70% of the U.S. market but declined to specify airlines. Dr. Paulo Alves, MedAire\u2019s global medical director of aviation health, said 98% of medical events are managed on board and are non-life-threatening, while 2% are serious cases that might divert a flight.<\/p>\n

Alves said his company also provides medical consultations before passengers board a flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn airplane \u2014 although I love aviation \u2014 is never the best place for you to have a medical event,\u201d Alves said. \u201cThe first line of prevention is actually preflight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alves also defended the contents of airlines\u2019 medical kits. The medically trained volunteers who step in to help fellow passengers in an emergency may expect resources available in a hospital, but \u201cthe airplane is not a hospital. You cannot carry everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mani said she would like to see airlines disclose which medical emergencies they\u2019re trained to address \u2014 potentially on flight safety cards. Sasson said it would be helpful if airlines clearly shared information about what medical supplies are available on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the general public doesn\u2019t realize how much of a crapshoot it is when they\u2019re up in the air that somebody with some sort of medical training will know what to do, if something were to happen,\u201d Sasson said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Vignesh Ramachandran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March, a Frontier Airlines flight was headed from Phoenix to Las Vegas when a female passenger stopped breathing. The flight attendant yelled in the cabin for help. A passenger who was trained as a wilderness first responder, Seth Coley, jumped into action and found the woman was unresponsive and had a weak pulse. Coley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29015,28045],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-594714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-during","category-in-flight"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}