An AA 737 had to make an diversion to Baton Rouge yesterday for a medical emergency

anxiety attack due to separation from comfort animal.
it happens

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How bad would an emergency have to be to actually land the plane after barely an hour in flight?

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I don't think they make them for paper-cuts, no matter how painful the OT thinks they are.

Seems like GPT would have been more expedient. There's even a hospital in Gulfport!

I’ve responded to several in flight emergencies and it kind of sucks. You are really limited in what you can do for people who may be having something serious going on. You can always talk to the medical control/med director on the ground if you need guidance regarding the decision to reroute a plane. Thankfully never had to do that. The most common emergency calls on planes are due to people passing out from being dehydrated. That’s easy. But when you have someone with chest pain it gets a little dicey. You also never know who is going to respond to the emergency. Nurse? Psychiatrist? ER doctor? Chiropractor? (It happens lol)

The decision to land a plane is made in conjunction with the staff on board and with medical ground control. Basically they could have landed for something serious like a stroke or something that just made the medical provider uncomfortable but was ultimately a nothingburger.

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Closer to NOLA than Baton Rouge yet diverts to Baton Rouge

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They really had to put passenger and patient safety above all else in these cases.

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How bad would an emergency have to be to actually land the plane after barely an hour in flight? Must have been a heart attack or stroke right?

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Friend of mine had a gall bladder attack on a flight and they were only a hour from landing, but they put the plane down immediately and had a ambulance waiting for him.

All of the airlines have a doctor on call.

When this goes down they get on the phone with the doc and describe what is happening. He then makes the call as to whether they divert. Not the pilot.

I was on a flight to Las Vegas that got diverted to Salt Lake because a woman was flying a week after having a C Section and started bleeding. Of course, her doctor told her absolutely no activity OR FLYING for at least six weeks.* That lady cost us hours of delay as we had to refuel and whatever else crews do when this happens.

Best part was after the emergency landing and all the BS, the ambulance sat outside on the tarmac for 30 mins while we were all sitting on the plane. You could see the medics starting an IV and doing paperwork. Apparently it wasn't that huge of an emergency.

*I know because I was standing there with a doctor that was talking to her on the plane while underway. I was a licensed medic at the time.

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I was on a flight to Las Vegas that got diverted

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That lady cost us hours of delay

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But think of all the money you didn't lose during those hours. Turns out she was a saint.

When my wife (no pics) was still a flight attendant she had to have a plane divert due to a medical emergency, they were 15-ish minutes from their destination.

The issue was that the customer was an insane, spoiled bitch who had been throwing a fit the entire flight about anything and everything possible. The breaking point was when a guy was getting his child's carrier seat down from the bin and it brushed her arm as it fell slightly. No scars, no marks, yet she bellowed in pain and threw a fit, assuring everyone nearby that her wrist was broken.

My wife spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to calm her, finally offering her the accommodation of a medical emergency, meaning they would need to divert to the nearest airport (Buffalo, NY instead of their destination of JFK). The woman agreed so she told the pilot and the pilot landed.

The woman had been such a raging count that when the medics came on to take her from the plane, the people around her seat cheered. She, of course, had the smug look on her face signifying she thought she had "won". From what we found later, she was "uninvited" to be a customer ever again (meaning she got the ban-hammer) due to faking an injury.



For your troubles...

My BIL in an anesthesiologist. He was seated in first class next to a cardiologist on a flight from NY to Los Angeles. They talked a little shop, so he knew the guy was the real deal.

A couple of hours into the flight a request came over the intercom for a doctor. The cardiologist didn't make a move. My BIL asked him if he was going to respond. The guy ignored him.

My BIL went to the back of Coach and there's an old lady laid out in the aisle looking pretty dead. Her daughter, who was a pretty old lady herself, gave a brief medical history. My BIL was able to resuscitate her and had her talking before they made an emergency landing in Kansas City.

A couple of interesting points:
1) The flight attendents checked my BIL's credentials (whatever a doctor carries that says he's a doctor) before they let him assist.
2) The reasonably hot flight attendent gave him and his wife champagne for the rest of the flight.
3) The cardiologist seemed jealous of all the attention my BIL was receiving.

It happened about 20 years ago and my BIL still thinks the cardiologist is an a-hole.