I was flying to the Caribbean the other day when the temperature was so darn cold here at home. I tell you, I really wanted to stay in the warm sunshine. Airplane – break down, dammit. But it was just a turn around flight and so I had to go back home to the frigid temperatures.
On the flight there, a passenger complained that she wasn’t feeling well and was having trouble breathing. Off we went to page for a doctor, let the captain know about the medical situation and fetch the oxygen bottle and other first aid equipment. We put the passenger on oxygen (oxygen fixes 99 percent of all my medical distress calls) and a few nurses tended to the patient, listening to her breathing etc. Thankfully, there always seems to be at least one medical professional onboard whenever I need one.
Meanwhile, the captain let atc (air traffic control) know about the situation and requested to be patched through to a team of medical doctors that support us and give us advice from the ground.
Eventually, the passenger was fine. Later, the captain had suggested that perhaps we could have held off paging for a doctor and see if she got better with just oxygen. I was shocked he would say that for two reasons. One – when someone tells me that they are having trouble breathing, I react quickly. I don’t think a ‘wait and see’ attitude is the way to go! Two – It’s our company’s policy to always page for a doctor and to get in touch with our medical personel on the ground. I later found out, that he didn’t want the medical people to get involved so as to avoid filling out all the required paperwork after the fact. Nice guy!
On the way back to Canada, it was a lot quieter. The passengers had just spent a week in the hot sun and drinking their faces off. As we were boarding the aircraft, it got quite warm in the cabin. There was a family with a baby sitting close to the front of the aircraft. When, the safety demo was playing, the cabin was finally starting to cool off. The father had a magazine that he was holding on the ceiling above his head. I thought that was odd but assumed that he did not want the cold air conditioning blasting on the baby. Finally, I asked him about his magazine act and he said the speaker was right above their head and he was afraid the noise would wake up the baby. I looked at the baby and she was out cold. Nothing would wake up that child!
I noticed the next time I made an announcement, the dad swiftly placed the magazine back over the p.a. speaker. Sure enough, every time we spoke on the p.a., the magazine would fly up to the ceiling like a rocket. It was quite humorous to watch. Like I said, that baby was not waking up no matter what!
Before I made any announcements, I would stick my head in the cabin so I could watch the dad’s reaction. It gave me a little chuckle every time. Maybe I made more announcements then usual on that flight… And, no, the baby never woke up!
flightmum 