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OT: Red Eye's and other strangeness from last night.



Good job Chris. Stay calm, observe. That will tell you most of what you need to know.
Again, good job.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Chris Bennett [mailto:scirocco16vr32@gmail.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, February 7, 2007 11:30 AM
>To: 'Scirocco List'
>Subject: OT: Red Eye's and other strangeness from last night.
>
>Let me say first that THANK GOD in HEAVEN or whatever YOU choose to
>pray to... that I wasn't the one jacked up last night or I would be
>COMPLETELY screwed.
>
>I get on the red-eye to Philly last night in Vegas. 11pm pac time.
>As soon as we get up in the air I change my watch in anticipation of
>landing at 6am. Approximately 3am Eastern Time the stewardess turns
>on all the lights and announces that there is a medical emergency.
>Was there a doctor or an EMT on the plane? No answer... crickets...
>A couple minutes goes by and it's starting to sound a little more
>desperate again the call for an EMT or doctor or now ANYONE with ANY
>sort of medical training...
>
>I am thinking holy crap someone's got a bum ticker. I wasn't sure
>what I could do but I was trained as ALL in the Navy are, to be a
>Naval Firefighter, and I had specialized training as a medical/damage
>control first responder. Keep in mind in a military mindset/time of
>war priorities are a little different than in the civvie world--you
>let people die to save the ship if you had to... so my training was
>crude at best and at least a couple years out of practice now. I got
>up to see what I could do to help. I walk back there and there's this
>guy playing with the blood pressure cuff on this poor lady. She was
>maybe 30, about 16 weeks pregnant and had passed out. He asked me if
>I was an EMT and I couldn't help but laugh. No but I play one on
>tv... So the stewardess's are completely useless, he's volunteer fire
>fighter with basic first aid, but he couldn't find her pulse. I
>suggested the carotid artery and he asked me where it was! (and I
>caught him using his thumb)
>
>I always try to generate some sort of conversation with the patient to
>distract them. You chat them up a little while observing a few
>things. Respiration, color/claminess of the skin, pupils and so on.
>I crack jokes... Ma'am I've got some bad news for you, you have no
>pulse so therefore you must be dead. She thought that was pretty
>funny. I took her pulse and it worried me. 90+bpm and weak. The
>stethescope was crap so I couldn't get a decent blood pressure. They
>got the oxygen out and made her lay down--I basically treated for
>shock while I was gathering info. Stewardess comes up and wants to
>know on behalf of the captain how serious it was--did we need to land?
> I made it very clear that I was in NO WAY qualified to answer THAT
>question but I suggested getting an FAA doc on the radio and giving
>the stats. She was pregnant, no bleeding, no history of diabetes, no
>gestational diabetes with her first kid, I asked her if she had a good
>meal recently and she had. No history of anemia and no history of low
>blood pressure. She asked for some ginger ale and we gave it to her
>and her pulse slowly came down to about 60 (I monitored every 5
>minutes) and was much stronger. I was thinking she had low blood
>pressure and stood up too quickly in the bathroom. The doc on the
>ground made the call that there was no need to make an emergency
>landing, thanked me and that was about it.
>
>What bothered me was that I was the most medically qualified person on
>the plane... considering what I know... very little--that is really
>damn scary. If she had a broken bone or was bleeding horrendously I
>could deal with that. I could even do CPR... but that's about it.
>Jesus Christ I think I was more scared than she was. I told her when
>taking her pulse that I usually didn't hold hands on the first date, I
>kept her laughing so she wouldn't see how scared shitless I was.
>
>Additionally--WHAT THE HELL KIND OF TRAINING DO THESE FLIGHT
>ATTENDANTS GET? They give those people AED's!!! I mean if it was me
>in that situation I would have nightmare scenarios of one of them
>yelling "CLEAR!"
>
>They seemed almost in a state of panic.
>
>EMT's were waiting when I got there I turned over my observations and
>they wisked her away in an ambulance.
>
>Thank God it worked out. I got no sleep though.
>
>Chris
>
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