emt equipment and commercial flights

[Jon]

DV,

Here's an even better challenge for you. What good is a B/P cuff and scope? Look at your patient? Do they look like they are poorly perfused? Gee... lets lie them down. Do they have good cap refil and good strong radial pulses?

I can't argue with the idea of a few dressings. In fact, for any traveling, a small first aid kit is a great idea. I still often carry one I made up for Scouts, years ago. Bandaids and moleskin are great things to have on any long trip - and it is SO much cheaper than having to buy them on the trip. That, and some 4x4s, gauze rolls, neosporin, tweezers... about covers it.


So yeah... the airlines have advanced kits and usually have on-line medical direction that will at the very least participate in the decision to divert the aircraft.

 

[Melclin]

akflightmedic and Flight_LP : HAHAHAHAa. Ah, flight if you write that book I'll read it.

What the hell did he want GTN or atropine for? Did he ever actually give a reason or was he just a nut?

And scout...sorry man, Dublin International terminal is rubbish

 

[Jon]

akflightmedic and Flight_LP : HAHAHAHAa. Ah, flight if you write that book I'll read it.

What the hell did he want GTN or atropine for? Did he ever actually give a reason or was he just a nut?

And scout...sorry man, Dublin International terminal is rubbish

GTN? Are you cixelsyd?

 

[Melclin]

Glyceryl Trinitrate --- nitroglycerine.

Haha, you yanks and your different names for things. Honestly, one day I'm ganna fly over there and pop whoever decided to use the name epinephrine instead of adrenaline. Bloody epi infests all of our textbooks and I have to switch things around in my head. Never had poor Aussie paramedic students in mind did you

for good measure : http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1127537

 

[akflightmedic]

GTN? Are you cixelsyd?

You think GTN is odd, you ought to hear how they pronounce phenergan and aluminum.

 

[AJ Hidell]

Prime example of why I usually just dont get involved. To add to the humor, a PA that I worked with was sitting a few seats away and hid quite well during all of the drama. We had breakfast together when we got to D.C. and he told me he wanted nothing to do with that and as such is the reason why he hit the bottle early in the flight. I probably should have done the same!

Reminds me of the last in-flight medical emergency I helped with. I had just taken a couple sleeping pills so I could sleep through the 9 hour flight and be fresh when I got back to the states. Just as the drugs began to kick in on me, the flight attendants made a PA announcement asking for any doctor on board to please notify a flight attendant. I tried to inconspicuously look around the plane to see if anyone was stepping up. After a couple of minutes, I had seen nobody volunteer, and the flight attendants repeated the announcement. So reluctantly, I undid my seat belt and got out of my seat to approach the flight attendant. As I did, the guy sitting next to me said, "Well, if you'll go, I'll go." Turned out he was a Sports Medicine physician from New York. We were taken to the galley where two other physicians had also gathered. The sick lady was well cared for!

The point of the story being, I doubt there are any transatlantic flights without at least two physicians on board. If there's a full arrest, well then you as an EMT are probably the best qualified compressor on board! But otherwise, don't expect anything you bring to the table to be of any use.

Regarding equipment, it can be hit and miss. While the flights are supposed to be well equipped with medical supplies, sometimes someone drops the ball. On the flight above, we ended up with all three medical kits being brought to us, all of them sealed and certified to be complete, and not a one of them had a stethoscope in them. Other items were missing too. The people that inspect and restock those things are apparently non-medical, minimum-wage idiots, so don't ever be surprised to find them incomplete. But still, if all you are is an EMT, I wouldn't be cramming anything in my carry-on in preparation of that possibility.