I am very interested in learnings the fact pattern around this one. Two main areas of interest are were the flight attendants relaying poor information/bypassing protocol or did MedAire make the wrong decision?
I am very interested in learnings the fact pattern around this one. Two main areas of interest are were the flight attendants relaying poor information/bypassing protocol or did MedAire make the wrong decision?
The attendants offering medication but the individual took something the spouse had on hand instead is another that seemed like a key fact to me.
I'm not saying I lean towards one side right now. I'm just saying the fact pattern and scenario seems kinda strange.
Yes, the full facts would be interesting to know, because I have seen how inaccurate many media articles are when you know the real story.
Surprising there are people that think the captain should be making a medical assessment of the passenger. While the captain has command of the aircraft, we aren’t in any way medical professionals. The cabin crew gets annual medical training, they are the eyes and ears for anything going on in the cabin. There is absolutely no reason for the pilots to be going to the back in that situation.
The procedure for most airlines is to call medlink any time there is any sort of medical situation on board. They are the experts we rely upon. The FAs relay all peritinent information, and take any action advised by the actual emergency medical team on the other end. If medlink feels there is something that concerns them, they don’t hesitate to advise a diversion. But their entire purpose is to minimize unnecessary diversions, because besides being enormously costly, it also is a huge inconvenience to all the other passengers on board. If we diverted every time someone wasn’t well on board it would happen with great frequency. And if you didn’t get home, or to your destination, because the plane diverted due to only a gastrointestinal illness (happens all the time), and you were then stuck somewhere for an extra day or two (unnecessarily) until recovery could be accomplished, people wouldn’t be happy.
Please understand, of course in a life threatening situation there is no doubt that aircraft will divert, and they do so regularly. But it is in everyone’s best interest to minimize the frequency of how often it happens, which means trusting the experts to make the call on what is minor vs critical.
So the question in this case seems to be did the cabin crew relay the appropriate and pertinent information? And if so why did medlink make what in hindsight was an erroneous call?
I can’t imagine it is anything to do with heartless people who don’t care about people dying on the aircraft, nobody wants anything like that to happen, ever.
So instead of making rash and harsh judgements, perhaps wait for actual facts, because the story as told really doesn’t make sense with the reality of how things go.
Last edited by Ryan Coke; 11-08-2023 at 12:52 PM.
The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Ryan Coke For This Useful Post:
On the topic of captains, I've been watching YouTube videos lately of guys driving their ####ty little boats out of some harbour in the US where the waves get huge. These boats sink, people fly around in them breaking bones, and just generally get violently tossed around. It's great.
But each and every time the guy driving the boat is called a captain. Like, the shirtless, over-sized, MAGA-hat-wearing, drunk-ass reject is a captain. There's too much gravitas in that word to apply it to a guy that can pick up a boat for $40k, guzzle a beer, and rip down a waterway. We need a better term in that context.
On the topic of captains, I've been watching YouTube videos lately of guys driving their ####ty little boats out of some harbour in the US where the waves get huge. These boats sink, people fly around in them breaking bones, and just generally get violently tossed around. It's great.
But each and every time the guy driving the boat is called a captain. Like, the shirtless, over-sized, MAGA-hat-wearing, drunk-ass reject is a captain. There's too much gravitas in that word to apply it to a guy that can pick up a boat for $40k, guzzle a beer, and rip down a waterway. We need a better term in that context.
LOL, freaking Wavy Boats! Somehow that ended up in my youtube algorithm this year.
The Following User Says Thank You to Bigtime For This Useful Post:
On the topic of captains, I've been watching YouTube videos lately of guys driving their ####ty little boats out of some harbour in the US where the waves get huge. These boats sink, people fly around in them breaking bones, and just generally get violently tossed around. It's great.
But each and every time the guy driving the boat is called a captain. Like, the shirtless, over-sized, MAGA-hat-wearing, drunk-ass reject is a captain. There's too much gravitas in that word to apply it to a guy that can pick up a boat for $40k, guzzle a beer, and rip down a waterway. We need a better term in that context.
My dad had a little plaque on his old sailboat that said "I am the captain of this boat and I have my wife's permission to say so." So that's really all you need to be a captain. A wife.
The Following User Says Thank You to Fuzz For This Useful Post:
On the topic of captains, I've been watching YouTube videos lately of guys driving their ####ty little boats out of some harbour in the US where the waves get huge. These boats sink, people fly around in them breaking bones, and just generally get violently tossed around. It's great.
But each and every time the guy driving the boat is called a captain. Like, the shirtless, over-sized, MAGA-hat-wearing, drunk-ass reject is a captain. There's too much gravitas in that word to apply it to a guy that can pick up a boat for $40k, guzzle a beer, and rip down a waterway. We need a better term in that context.
As a licensed pleasure boat captain and bayliner owner, I feel personally attacked.
As a licensed pleasure boat captain and bayliner owner, I feel personally attacked.
You should get a little Zodiak and put a huge motor (engine?) on it. Check out this video of a dude catwalking his everywhere. This is the only boat set up I would actually ever want. It's hilarious.
The Following User Says Thank You to Sliver For This Useful Post:
You should get a little Zodiak and put a huge motor (engine?) on it. Check out this video of a dude catwalking his everywhere. This is the only boat set up I would actually ever want. It's hilarious.
But if it flies, floats or fatas it's better to rent.
The Following User Says Thank You to fotze2 For This Useful Post:
There's a lot of added "flavour" in this article thanks to the charged nature of all the quotes from the daughter (understandably so. It's an awful situation), but the reality of airline procedures with regards to medical emergencies on board tend to be pretty straightforward. Once a medical situation's identified, a checklist is filled out and forwarded to the pilots, who will contact MedLink/Medaire for advice on care for the affected passenger as well as guidance/recommendations on a possible diversion. The policy’s generally to try and enlist on board medical help to assist if possible, but in the event of any conflicts between MedLink/Medaire’s assessment on the need for a diversion and that of an onboard volunteer, the advice of the former is to be followed. Pilot-in-command obviously retains ultimate authority on where to put the airplane, but it would have to be an exceptional scenario wherein a recommendation to divert wasn’t followed.
So, whether it was a breakdown in what was being communicated from the cabin crew to the flight crew as to the patient's condition, or a poor call on MedLink's part, it strikes me as unlikely that the crew simply neglected to divert amidst a known life threatening medical situation aboard. That just isn't how it's done. Certainly a situation where a few more details about what actually went down would come in handy.
__________________ Is your cat doing singing?
Last edited by Max Cow Disease; 11-10-2023 at 01:09 AM.
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Max Cow Disease For This Useful Post:
Back in June, Turkish Airlines diverted here due to a medical situation, and the woman unfortunately died before they landed. I had to go up there to talk to somebody from the flight crew to get up to speed with their game plan, but before I got there they figured the fastest way to continue onto SFO without delay was to not wait for medical and just dump the woman's body onto the jetbridge with a blanket from first class only partially covering her, with the woman's hysterical daughter there watching the ordeal.
Of course, none of this nor the vast majority of things I've seen over the years here would ever be in the news, so it's always interesting to see AC get thrown under the bus and calls for the captain to be arrested when it's almost certain nobody did anything intentionally malicious.
The Following User Says Thank You to Acey For This Useful Post:
Back in June, Turkish Airlines diverted here due to a medical situation, and the woman unfortunately died before they landed. I had to go up there to talk to somebody from the flight crew to get up to speed with their game plan, but before I got there they figured the fastest way to continue onto SFO without delay was to not wait for medical and just dump the woman's body onto the jetbridge with a blanket from first class only partially covering her, with the woman's hysterical daughter there watching the ordeal.
Of course, none of this nor the vast majority of things I've seen over the years here would ever be in the news, so it's always interesting to see AC get thrown under the bus and calls for the captain to be arrested when it's almost certain nobody did anything intentionally malicious.
I can't tell if this should be green text or not? Did they actually leave the body on the jetbridge and just peace out?
__________________
Much like a sports ticker, you may feel obligated to read this
