TROUBLE IN THE AIR

Emergency health professionals who travel by air will be interested in the report by Qureshi and Porter on the medical emergencies which occurred in the air over a 6 month period on a single major international airline. According to their data, when the call went out over the tannoy requesting assistance from a health professional, a doctor, nurse, or paramedic responded on most occasions. Medical emergencies in the air most often involved passengers with exacerbations of pre-existing problems, particularly of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Life threatening emergencies were thankfully uncommon, with the benefit (particularly from the airline’s perspective) that …