Should airlines pay for services they request a medical professional to perform?

[Reggie]

Which leads me to a bad medical joke: (Apologies )

An anaesthetist is flying in his Y class seat on a flight, when he hears the dreaded "Is there a doctor on board" call. He looks around, and noone else seems to be responding, so he decides to do the right thing and pushes his call button. The FA attends, and he tells her "I am an anaesthetist, can I help?" She replies "Thank God you are an anaesthetist, that'st what we needed. We need you in J, there's an orthopaedic surgeon who needs his light adjusted!"

No apologies needed, this resulted in a great laugh. Not quite as much as the movie I saw last night - Hallpass - but thats another story.

 

[mannej]

No apologies needed, this resulted in a great laugh. Not quite as much as the movie I saw last night - Hallpass - but thats another story.

Great off to see that tomorrow.

Interesting topic to see all the issues behind this. I would think that the "patients" or their family should be the more thankful for the actions of the doc much more then the airline


Sent from my iPhone using AFF Mobile

 

[JohnK]

I believe most would want to assist....

I don't doubt that most doctors would want to assist.

I do agree that some small gesture (not financial compensation) would be appreciated - whether it be something like a points refund for award flights, J upgrade for the remainder of the flight if in Y or a bottle of wine on disembarking.

QF staff, if you're readiing this, I don't drink but some J pyjamas would go down a treat!

So financial compensation is inappropriate.

Surely acknowledgement from management would not be too much to expect and if some reward is offered, ie pyjamas , then even better....

 

[bossreggie]

I can speak about this from the point of view of one in need of medical attention mid-flight from AKL-MEL.

I had an allergic reaction which resulted in me losing consciousness and a flight diversion to SYD.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....cussion/aff-member-mid-air-medical-22073.html

When I woke up in the hospital in Sydney, +1 had already been contacted the the QF Doctor in Sydney to enquire of my condition.

When I arrived back in MEL +1 gave me a yellow form which had been completed by both the CSM and the Dr who responded to the call for asssistance. This form had the Dr's name, contact details etc.

We sent the Dr involved, a very nice bottle of Red from my collection, along with a voucher for use at Crown. (He was based in Carlton)

I am not sure what, if anything QF provided to him, but in my one and only experience, the Dr's details were provided to us as a matter of course. I would expect at the very least... The pax requiring attention could have sent a letter or some type of "Thank You"

 

[RSD]

but I have delusions of grandeur that one day I might have to ask the captain of a full A380 / 747 to land ASAP!!:mrgreen::!:

Didn't have the delusions of grandeur but had to make that call on a CX A340 flight a few years ago - the patient's BP was going south rapidly even though we were heading east towards LAX - the CSM asked me was there anything else I needed and the terse reply was "a hospital". CSM got on the phone to the coughpit and then said that the captain was going to divert to Honolulu if I wanted it and I replied "yes - now". We managed to get the patient alive to hospital.

The captain was the late Dave Shaw.

 

[docjames]

A divert recently:

9th March 2011 - VH-OJU QF29 Warsaw Diversion.
Boeing 747-438 VH-OJU operating flight QF29 Hong Kong - London Heathrow diverted to Warsaw due to a medical emergency. The aircraft was on the ground for an hour and three quarters before continuing to London.

I'd be interested if RedRoo had a (publishable) QF policy on asking for medical assistance etc? Or any of the DJ reps if they have similar?

 

[milehighclub]

Few points of interest from my manual:

If a doctor wasn't onboard, Qantas through the use of Medlink can gain access to health professionals in over 45 medical specialty areas.

If required, a Medical practitioner volunteer should be sought. In the manual, volunteer always follows medical practitioner. No one would ever be forced to help.

Whatever happens onboard, Medlink (if contacted) have the final authority. Crew and the medical practitioner must follow their advice (which would be based on the advice given by crew and any medical practitioner)

 

[docjames]

Thamms milehighclub!

Hopefully there'd be little need for that last scenario (conflict between onboard doc opinion and medlink!)

Here's hoping my "luck" dries up and I can have a long series of uneventful flights!

Another stat that would be interesting would be to know

A) medical diversion rate
B) medical attendance/consultation rate

I suspect neither will be easy stats to find out (he says heading off to search both google and medline..........)

 

[Amazer]

Doctors on board

Totally agree that Doctor should offer to assist, a thank you from airline would be nice, and better still, a thank you from the patient!! What happened to good old days,where people did things, without the hand out !!

 

[benhadi]

Re: Doctors on board

Totally agree that Doctor should offer to assist, a thank you from airline would be nice, and better still, a thank you from the patient!! What happened to good old days,where people did things, without the hand out !!

It became an expectation, and people no longer appreciated.

I know for a fact there are people out there that firmly believe medicine is a noble profession, so doctors should not ask for better pay. Their argument is that the sacrifice is part of being a doctor, and you should have considered this before applying to get into med school. In other words, work hard, low pay because it's supposed to be a noble position. Sure the income increases over the years, fruits of their years of hard labour and personal sacrifices. Nothing wrong with that.

See the problem? I know I digressed a bit but I guess it's important to consider that Doctors are humans too, with real needs, families, big student debts coz med school is so long and expensive, and financial obligations just like everyone else. And feelings too. I can't stand it when people think having a doctor on vacation attend to them to be their right, and not a privilege.

 

[eightblack]

Re: Doctors on board

Sadly, in this day and age, there's also the issue of liability that doctors have to contend with (ie if I help this person and there is a complication, will I get sued into oblivion?)

 

[straitman]

Re: Doctors on board

Totally agree that Doctor should offer to assist, a thank you from airline would be nice, and better still, a thank you from the patient!! What happened to good old days,where people did things, without the hand out !!

Amazer.

Welcome to AFF.

I have merged your thread into one that was opened only a week before.

 

[drmikki]

For some reason, I have had a run of country patients bringing me farm eggs to thank me after their surgery. Whilst greatly appreciated, it wouldn't be a very practical thank you on an international flight I wonder if eggs fail the liquids/gels criteria?

 

[NM]

I wonder if eggs fail the liquids/gels criteria?

not if they are hard boiled

Would only be an issue if the egg is >100ml or is not clearly labeled with its volume in either ml or fl oz.

 

[anat0l]

not if they are hard boiled

Would only be an issue if the egg is >100ml or is not clearly labeled with its volume in either ml or fl oz.

Going O/T now...

Too bad you can't use logic to get yourself out of this. In order to have an egg larger than 100mL, assuming that an egg is an ellipsoid, you would need an egg which is bigger than 7cm long, 5 cm at its tallest and widest points.

Other combinations possible, but notwithstanding that the entire egg inside is actually filled with egg, we're still talking big eggs to violate the 100mL rule. Still doesn't pass LAGs since volume is not printed on it, plus how does one safely put a bunch of eggs in a 1L resealable bag.

 

[straitman]

Going O/T now...

Too bad you can't use logic to get yourself out of this. In order to have an egg larger than 100mL, assuming that an egg is an ellipsoid, you would need an egg which is bigger than 7cm long, 5 cm at its tallest and widest points.

Other combinations possible, but notwithstanding that the entire egg inside is actually filled with egg, we're still talking big eggs to violate the 100mL rule. Still doesn't pass LAGs since volume is not printed on it, plus how does one safely put a bunch of eggs in a 1L resealable bag.

You are right.

Definitely OT :!: :mrgreen:

 

[oz_mark]

filled with egg, we're still talking big eggs to violate the 100mL rule. Still doesn't pass LAGs since volume is not printed on it, plus how does one safely put a bunch of eggs in a 1L resealable bag.

Only if we limit ourselves to chicken eggs.....For an Ostrich, may not be such a big egg....and drmikki might have patients that have Ostrich farms

 

[anat0l]

Only if we limit ourselves to chicken eggs.....For an Ostrich, may not be such a big egg....and drmikki might have patients that have Ostrich farms

And who, pray tell, eats Ostrich eggs?

While we're at it - and off topic - I wonder if Caramello creme eggs come in a big size version. If they did, I'd like to see how you carry one of those internationally (eating it would also be another challenge).


To bring it back to topic, getting paid with eggs is something. Then again, you have people that have probably offered knitted items (jumpers, mittens, etc.), bottles of wine...... in some cases aren't there professional obligations related to accepting these gifts (e.g. at the university we have "anti-bribery" provisions which limit the ability for our accepting gifts)...

 

[drron]

I've eaten ostrich eggs on Curacao.

 

[drmikki]

As far as I can tell, no official giant Cadbury Creme eggs


However, thanks to wonders of the internet, you can make your own!! :mrgreen:
Pimp That Snack - The Creme de la Creme Egg