{"id":5418,"date":"2017-07-06T18:27:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T22:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parksleepfly.com\/blog\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2024-02-06T09:24:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T13:24:04","slug":"what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens when there\u2019s an in-flight medical emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\np.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 16.0px 'Helvetica Light'; color: #404040} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 18.0px; font: 16.0px 'Helvetica Light'; color: #404040; min-height: 19.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}\n--><\/style>\n<p>Flying can be a scary prospect for some people, even when they&#8217;re perfectly healthy. There&#8217;s always that &#8220;what if&#8221; voice in the back of your mind wondering what would happen if you, or a fellow passenger, were stricken with a medical emergency during the few hours you&#8217;re stuck mid-flight.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5420\" alt=\"InFlight_Emergency_800\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/psf_blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/InFlight_Emergency_800.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The good news is that you aren&#8217;t alone, and airlines take medical emergencies quite seriously. There are a number of precautions in place that can help to save lives during possible emergencies while in the air. If this is a fear of yours, read on to get the facts to ease your mind on your next flight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>1. Who (or what) Can Help<\/h3>\n<p>Airlines freely acknowledge that it isn&#8217;t an ideal situation for someone to get ill onboard a flight, so they have many procedures in place should the unthinkable occur. If someone passes out or becomes unresponsive, flight attendants are universally trained to administer basic first aid. There&#8217;s a standard medical kit on board, as well as a defibrillator for heart problems, and together those things can handle most medical issues. If there is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC5331121\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">doctor or a registered nurse on board<\/a>, they don\u2019t\u00a0<i>legally<\/i>\u00a0have to volunteer to help during an emergency, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/travel\/is-there-a-doctor-on-board-managing-medical-emergencies-at-30000-feet\/2015\/08\/06\/9ea7037a-0afa-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html?utm_term=.ccf0cd02b3bd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most do as an ethical obligation<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Now, if there isn&#8217;t a doctor on board your flight, and you start panicking that the flight attendants are far from medical professionals, there&#8217;s a program called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/STATMDAirline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">STAT-MD<\/a> available on most major airlines that provides medical ground support for airline personnel. If there&#8217;s a medical situation beyond the scope of the flight staff, life-saving employees at the University of Pittsburgh are available to walk attendants through the emergency; they can help the onboard staff to administer whatever treatment is necessary or make the suggestion that the pilot divert and land the plane in the event of a serious medical issue.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>2. Common Emergencies<\/h3>\n<p>Even though your mind may be running wild with all of the crazy (and highly unlikely) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/travel\/columnist\/mcgee\/2017\/02\/01\/medical-incident\/97287374\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">things that could go wrong<\/a> in your body while you&#8217;re 30,000 feet in the air, please know that true in-flight medical emergencies are rare. Heart attacks and cardiac arrest are not common occurrences on airplanes and statistically they actually only account for less than 1% of all in-flight medical issues. Most often, medical situations are merely dizziness or feeling light-headed, complaints of nausea or passengers suffering from low blood sugar; all of which can be remedied quickly by the airline staff.<\/p>\n<p>More often than not, when passengers on a flight feel ill, it&#8217;s because they&#8217;re just dehydrated. If you&#8217;re worried about feeling sick on your next flight, keep water with you at all times to avoid dehydration. And again, if there is something else going on such as shortness of breath or chest pain, the airline staff can communicate directly with doctors on the ground to discuss the best course of action to treat the passenger properly.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>3. What Happens if It\u2019s Serious<\/h3>\n<p>If there is a true,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/11\/24\/health\/in-flight-medical-emergencies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> life-threatening medical emergency on board<\/a>, the airline staff have the right to move passengers&#8217; seats in order to give the patient some room and apply whatever treatment may be required. In a worst case scenario, if a doctor or the team at STAT-MD deem it necessary, the plane may need to make an emergency landing in a different city to treat the patient immediately. Babies being born mid-flight and heart attacks are the top reasons planes need to be diverted, and if the personnel feel a life could be lost for whatever reason, they&#8217;ll do what&#8217;s best for the patient and land early.<\/p>\n<p>In the extremely rare occasion of a death on board, the airline staff face different protocols depending on a variety of factors. The plane could be diverted, the passenger may be moved someplace more private such as the lavatory or the airline may just put a blanket over the deceased passenger until the plane lands at its original destination. But again, the chances of this happening are extremely rare. Most emergencies are treated promptly and result in the passenger making a full recovery thanks to the training of competent flight attendants and the STAT-MD team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flying can be a scary prospect for some people, even when they&#8217;re perfectly healthy. There&#8217;s always that &#8220;what if&#8221; voice in the back of your mind wondering what would happen if you, or a fellow passenger, were stricken with a medical emergency during the few hours you&#8217;re stuck mid-flight. The good news is that you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[726],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What happens when there\u2019s an in-flight medical emergency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are a number of precautions and protocols in place that can help to save lives during a possible medical emergency while in the air.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What happens when there\u2019s an in-flight medical emergency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are a number of precautions and protocols in place that can help to save lives during a possible medical emergency while in the air.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ParkSleepFly.com Travel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-06T22:27:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-06T13:24:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ParkSleepFly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ParkSleepFly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/\",\"name\":\"What happens when there\u2019s an in-flight medical emergency\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-06T22:27:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-06T13:24:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef383979302b05b81981a31b395fb42\"},\"description\":\"There are a number of precautions and protocols in place that can help to save lives during a possible medical emergency while in the air.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-theres-an-in-flight-medical-emergency\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"ParkSleepFly.com Travel Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef383979302b05b81981a31b395fb42\",\"name\":\"ParkSleepFly\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/parksleepfly.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a7fde1e7209956b4fc91d1cf0d1330e8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a7fde1e7209956b4fc91d1cf0d1330e8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ParkSleepFly\"},\"description\":\"ParkSleepFly.com brings you the essential travel news and deals. 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