Medical emergencies on board commercial airlines: is documentation as expected?

Medical emergencies on board commercial airlines: is documentation as expected?

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to perform a descriptive, content-based analysis on the different forms of documentation for in-flight medical emergencies that are currently provided in the emergency medical kits on board commercial airlines. METHODS Passenger airlines in the World Airline Directory were contacted between March and May 2011. For each participating airline, sample i...

In-Flight Medical Emergencies during Commercial Travel.

Physicians who travel may be asked to render care to a passenger who is having a medical emergency during a commercial flight. A considerable proportion of passengers in whom medical issues develop during travel require hospitalization. Therefore, health care providers should understand which in-flight medical emergencies occur commonly as well as the roles the providers can play and the liabil...

Outcomes of medical emergencies on commercial airline flights.

BACKGROUND Worldwide, 2.75 billion passengers fly on commercial airlines annually. When in-flight medical emergencies occur, access to care is limited. We describe in-flight medical emergencies and the outcomes of these events. METHODS We reviewed records of in-flight medical emergency calls from five domestic and international airlines to a physician-directed medical communications center fr...

Surgical and medical emergencies on board European aircraft: a retrospective study of 10189 cases

INTRODUCTION In-flight medical and surgical emergencies (IMEs) onboard commercial aircrafts occur quite commonly. However, little epidemiological research exists concerning these incidents. METHODS Thirty-two European airlines were asked to provide anonymous data on medical flight reports of IMEs for the years 2002 to 2007. The total number of incidents was correlated to revenue passenger kil...

Medical Emergencies