The first time the aircraft diverted for a medical: the passenger, the decision, the landing somewhere unplanned
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#1 Aer Lingus, Dublin, three years, the transatlantic, and the medical emergency thread on here is the crew side of the medical. The diversion for the medical is the rarer thing and the crew member who starts the chain (the one who sees the passenger, calls the purser, and whose call becomes the captain's diversion) carries it. I was that crew member a year ago on a Boston. Here it is.
The passenger
Row 38, an older man, grey and sweating three hours out over the Atlantic, the wife who said he was fine and the face that was not. The thing Omar's economy thread called the passenger who is quiet in the wrong way. I knelt, asked, and the answers were the chest and the arm and the training's list in my head.
The decision
The purser informed, the medical kit, the oxygen, the ground medical advice line through the flight deck, the doctor on board (there was one, a GP from Cork, and the call for one is the thing the passengers remember), and the captain's decision with the ground doctor's advice: divert to Gander. The decision is the captain's and the ground doctor's and the purser's information, and the crew member who called it is the one who gave the first information and whose face the captain read on the interphone.
The landing somewhere unplanned
Paul's cancelled layover thread: Gander, the small airport, the ambulance arranged on the way, the cabin secured with 200 passengers who knew why, the passenger on the oxygen with the GP and me, the landing. The ambulance at the gate, the paramedics up the stairs, the handover (the GP's notes, the times, the oxygen), the passenger out, the wife with him, the aircraft quiet.
The after
The duty time clock, which put the crew over the limit, the Gander hotel (the church hall story is true and the hotel has four rooms and a crew of ten), the passengers onward the next day, the paperwork (the incident report, the medical report, the fatigue report for the extended duty), and the airline's call to me the next week to say the passenger had survived the heart attack and the wife had written to the airline naming row 38's crew member. The EAP call I did not think I needed and the peer supporter's call that I did.
What I remember a year later
The face, grey and sweating. The GP from Cork saying 'you called it right'. The captain's voice on the interphone asking for my read. The Gander hotel's four rooms. And the wife's letter, which the airline forwarded and which is in the drawer with the wings. The training's list in my head was the thing that worked and the forum's medical threads were the thing that made the list familiar.
For the crew who have not had one
The passenger who is quiet in the wrong way is the one. Kneel and ask. The chain is the purser, the kit, the ground doctor, the doctor on board, the captain. The decision is not yours and the first information is. And the wife's letter is the thing you keep.
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#2 Aer Lingus, seven years, and Tom's Boston diversion to Gander is the one the Dublin crew room told for a month and the wife's letter is the thing the base manager read out at the briefing. The crew member who called it right. The chain worked. The Gander hotel's four rooms are famous.
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#3 Virgin, 14 years, and the diversion for the medical from the crew member who called it is the thread the medical emergency one needed: the face, the kneel, the chain, the captain reading your read on the interphone. Tom carried it and the peer supporter's call was the right one. The letter in the drawer with the wings.
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#4 Air NZ purser, and 'the decision is not yours and the first information is' is the sentence every crew member should know before the first medical. The purser and the captain decide and the crew member in row 38 gives them the thing they decide on. Tom gave it right.
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#5 Virgin, peer supporter, and the EAP call Tom did not think he needed and the peer supporter's call he did is the pattern every diversion crew member describes. The grey face stays. The call helps it stay smaller. Tom's drawer with the letter and the wings is the right drawer.
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#6 Air NZ, ex nurse, and the training's list in the head at row 38 is the thing the nurses have before the course and the crew have after it, and Tom had it at three years and used it. The GP from Cork saying 'you called it right' is the sentence the nurse in me wanted to read.
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#7 Newark, and Gander is the Newark diversion airport too and the church hall and the four room hotel are the stories the transatlantic crews share across airlines. Tom's passenger survived and the crews who divert there all have a version. The ambulance at the gate is the image.