On board... in medical terms

(MENAFN- Arab News) As you are reading this well over 600000 people are on some passenger airplane heading somewhere.
Approximately a billion passengers (and that's the present population of India) fly each year the world over.
Some of them are going to fall sick for the first time on the plane others will be carrying old ailments with them and have related problems on-board.
A few hundred will also die in-flight though such cases will not be publicized very much.
With the advent of the deep vein thrombosis era there is a new dimension to personal safety.
The fear of litigation following medical treatment in flight and the concern over the medical parameters of personal safety on board aircraft and the quality of aircraft air is another dimension in the matter.
The author an expert in aviation medicine discusses how the risk can be minimized.
The present generation of airplanes have on-board medical facilities that once seemed farfetched. While they are not ideal or of a given standard world wide they represent the attempts by the concerned airline to offer emergency medical services may be even at a price.
Although the fibrillator is still optional and the concept of carrying a doctor on board still far away things have improved dramatically in recent years.
Death by deep vein thrombosis has been a milestone in this saga what with it having become a sort of collective conspiracy to downplay the negative side of air travel and the medical implications of mass transit for longer periods with more people.
As the 15-hour plus five hundred passenger trip becomes more common and the realization seeps in that 7500 manhours in the air could produce an emergency on board there will be other steps taken in the right direction.
Next generation airplanes will have shopping arcades bars and hopefullyemergency clinics designed into the structure.
There were times in the mid-sixties when a baby born on an airplane was big news.
The child was offered a lifetime of free travel on the airline and if I am not wrong citizenship of the country being overflown. At least so the legend went though it probably was more media hype than truth.
And did you hear of the scuba diving lady who caught a flight soon after surfacing only to 'puncture' her lung in the plane?.
She had the emergency condition of 'Tension pneumothorax'(essentially an 'airlock' in the chest) attended to with great ingenuity by doctor-fellow travelers on board.
She then went on to sue the hapless blokes for causing an 'ugly-scar' on her chest wall. Talk about being grateful.
In the humor is a very powerful dimension to medical practice on board.
The fear of malpractice suits and negligence even today prevents doctors from getting involved when a call is made on board for help. Why get involved seems to be the motivation.
Airlines are loathe to grasp this nettle because it isn't any easy one to hold.
The permutations are just too many and the unpredictability of the passenger after he survives would leave airlines vulnerable to the legal manipulations of ambulance chasers who see carriers as big juicy targets in litigation.
It will be necessary for the world's airlines to create some sort of a common charter on this issue. Imagine if you will the nightmare of a death by untreated illness on a plane or worse a death by treated illness on an aircraft or the wrangles between the patient being transported on the aircraft and the 'possible' negative impact on his condition by debatable actions of the crew in the cabin and on the flight deck.
Delay in dispensing medicine in not having the appropriate equipment in having ill trained staff with limited CPR abilities to cite a few examples.
There would be more litigation from these situations than from actual fatal accidents.
It is incredible but few airlines have really come up with a game plan. To date the attitude seems to be one of forbearance and hope that the menace of legal action will either die from delay or simply be settled out of court.
This may no longer be the case. And there is around the corner a growing concern over the ramifications of jamming hundreds of people in compressed spaces.
Until recently death and flying was the one to one result of an air accident. But the developing role of death in non-accident circumstances is now gaining attention.
There has indeed been a sea-change in attitudes of various airlines toward offering medical facilities on-board.
Obviously a profit motive still is the bottom line in defining the extent and nature of such services but fear of negative publicity is also a driving force.
The aim of this exercise is to give some background information on medical facilities on airplanes and at airports so as to enable you to make use of them in case of ill health and air travel striking you at the same time.