More and more people are choosing to travel by air, but most people never think about this question: what should I do if I have an emergency at 10,000 meters?
Until you actually experience the moment, you won't know what the answer is.
Before that, a web article titled "Between life and death, a reporter has something to say to you" was circulated in major social media, triggering heated discussions among netizens. A Liaoning passenger recounted an incident in which he had a sudden intestinal obstruction on a flight from Shenyang to Beijing, but did not receive help from the force. The core key words of the incident are: sudden intestinal obstruction → to the crew to help → landing after the hatch delayed opening → no one to help lift the ambulance → bounced around a number of hospitals before diagnosis of the operation → diagnosed as an intra-abdominal hernia, the removal of 0.8 meters of small intestine.
The whole process was bumpy, but fortunately no lives were lost.
While the responsibility is still not settled, the question of "what to do if you have a sudden illness on an airplane" is really making everyone's mind tight.
In the United States in the mid-1980s, about 10 people died each year on large passenger airplanes. Some figures show that about 100 passengers are killed in flight each year by medical problems. More and more people must fly regularly, and many of these are sick. The first airline to offer cardiac defibrillators with advanced medical kits was American Airlines, which has saved more than a dozen passengers from cardiac arrest since 1997, with a survival rate of 38 percent, which doesn't seem high but is already much higher than the survival rate of just under 5 percent in cities within the U.S., and all of this at 10,000 meters in the air.
Airline air emergencies are emergencies that occur suddenly to a passenger or crew member during the flight of a civil aviation craft. Dizziness, for example, is the most common flight illness, especially on long flights. Because the blood is easily stagnant in the lower limbs after sitting for too long, once you get up, you will feel dizzy or even faint. This is the moment to test the crew and the airline's ability to deal with emergencies.
If the situation is minor, most of the dizziness can be recovered with some assistance. But in many serious cases, it's not so simple.
First aid for airborne emergencies is different from everyday medical emergencies. When an emergency occurs in the air, even rudimentary on-site emergency care can be especially important.
What should an airline do when a passenger has an emergency?
1.? Pilot first to the airport emergency medical center for help;
2.? The emergency medical center finds out where the plane is located and then tells the driver the closest airport to where the plane will land;
3. The ground physician learns about the patient's condition through a voice link and instructs the crew on board how to rescue him;
4.? On-site resuscitation can save more patients if the airplane is equipped with advanced medical equipment, such as an automated external cardiac shock device.
What unusual conditions do we need to be alert to when traveling on an airplane?
Chest, abdominal or headache, unconsciousness, loss of breathing sounds, prolonged inactivity of the body, abnormal changes in the color of the face and lips, the appearance of painful expressions, profuse sweating of the face and trunk, abnormal dampness of clothing and the ground, shortness of breath or gasping tremors, sudden falls or body composure, moaning, weak cries for help or distress, abnormal odors, etc. .
How can you tell if an acute patient's vital signs are normal?
Respiration, pulse, blood pressure, heart rate, state of consciousness, and pupil changes are all useful references.
☆? If the patient can answer the questions correctly, it means that the consciousness is still awake.
☆ If the patient still responds to shaking, but cannot answer questions correctly, it proves that the patient is still conscious, but the condition is more serious.
☆ If the patient is completely unresponsive, it means that the patient has lost consciousness, and the condition is very serious, requiring immediate rescue.
☆ If the patient's consciousness is lost, breathing, aortic pulsation disappeared, you can initially determine that the patient belongs to the sudden death, you should immediately carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and artificial respiration and chest compressions, and quickly carry out rescue.
☆ If the patient's pain is severe, sweating profusely, facial color change, it mostly belongs to pain-related diseases, such as angina, stones, etc., combined with the patient's medical history for diagnosis.
☆ If the patient has difficulty breathing, open mouth and shoulder lifting, it mostly belongs to respiratory diseases, such as asthma emphysema, sudden pneumothorax.
☆ If the patient's heart panic, chest tightness, pain and shortness of breath, how to belong to the heart disease, such as coronary heart disease.
☆ If the patient dizziness, headache is very strong, should consider the possibility of hypertensive crisis.
☆ If the patient has projectile vomiting, severe headache, increased muscle tone, coma, etc., then it belongs to cerebral hemorrhage and other diseases.
But it is important to note that because the disease is constantly changing and developing, it should not be taken lightly at any time, and if there are abnormal signs of illness, it is necessary to carefully observe from the beginning to the end, and timely adjustment of the treatment.
How to give first aid in the confined space of an airplane?
Considering the relatively small space on an airplane, it is unlikely to provide enough room for rescue. Many illnesses should be selected to be performed in the patient's seat, minimizing patient movement so as to adversely affect the patient's condition, such as myocardial infarction.
Many conditions with mild symptoms that may be relieved by certain medications and that do not require special care should also be accomplished, in principle, in the seat.
If the patient's life is in danger and must be rescued immediately, a larger spatial environment is needed, such as sudden death CPR, etc., the patient needs to be moved to a more spacious location, such as the front of the aircraft (vibration is lighter, less affected by air currents, the rescue equipment is easy to unfold, such as the aircraft landed, the follow-up rescue can be quickly unfolded, the transfer is also convenient), and at the same time, the necessary adjustment of the passenger's seat The first step is to make a larger space for the rescue.
Warm reminder: If you have these conditions, please be careful to fly
1, diabetes (insulin treatment and unstable control), hypertension, atherosclerosis, phlebitis history of the elderly;
2, myocarditis, myocardial infarction within 1 month after the disease, cerebrovascular accidents within 2 weeks after the disease;
2, myocarditis, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents within 2 weeks after the disease;
3, the first time in the world to the world's most important city of the world. /p>
3, within 4 weeks of the expected date of delivery, or the expected date of delivery is uncertain but known to be a multiple birth or expected to have delivery complications;
4, the birth of 14 days or less of the baby;
5, severe tuberculosis cavity, pulmonary insufficiency of pulmonary heart disease, congenital pulmonary cysts;
6, patients with a recent spontaneous pneumothorax or recently had a pneumothorax angiography Patients with neurological conditions;
7, severe otitis media, accompanied by blockage of the Eustachian tube;
8, acute sinusitis, fixed jaw surgery;
9, large mediastinal tumors, extra-large hernias and intestinal obstruction of the patient; head injuries with increased intracranial pressure skull fracture;
10, patients suffering from polio, medullary poliomyelitis patients
11,? Patients with severe hemoptysis, vomiting, bleeding, vomiting and moaning symptoms;
12, recently had a surgical operation, the wound has not yet completely healed;
13, terminal cancer patients;
14, severe anemia;
15, suffering from contagious diseases, serious injury to the face or outside the body.
Lastly, let's review a set of reports:
At the end of 2005, 40 airports in the country's main airports and tourist city airports **** with the cooperation of the establishment of the "Civil Aviation Transportation Airport Emergency Rescue Collaborative Network" officially began operation. The business scope involves 23 provinces and 40 cities and regions. The sick travelers who need to take the plane only need to contact the local airport medical emergency department, can enjoy through the collaborative network to boarding, arrival and even the whole process of medical care accompanied by treatment services, the need to leave the country patients can also help to contact the special channel to handle the security, customs, border, health quarantine, and other related inspection procedures.
At the end of 2010, Xie Yanping, a member of the Shanghai Baoshan District People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), took a flight back to Shanghai from Nanning, where he was met by a passenger who suffered a sudden emergency. With his professional experience, Xie Yanping and the flight crew worked together to save the patient's life. In the rescue process, Xie members found that the plane is equipped with only a sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, oxygen equipment, syringes and glucose injections, dexamethasone injections and other few emergency treatment items. After learning from flight attendants, this is the case for most airlines. Xie Yanping engaged in the first line of medical work for many years, the above emergency medical supplies, if you want to implement some simple air can still cope with, once encountered a serious emergency patients on the helpless, often make the patient miss the best rescue time. Xie Yanping suggested that the civil aviation flights to add the following items: a palm-type blood glucose meter and test strips, can instantly identify some of the causes of morbidity, improve the accuracy of the medication; the second is the intravenous cannula needle, to protect the success rate of intravenous infusion in the bumpy airplanes; the third is the first aid medicine, in addition to the existing medicines should be increased in the fast-acting heart pills, musk cardiovascular pills, physiological saline injection of first aid medicines . strong>.
July 2015, the first phase of China Civil Aviation emergency ambulance management system construction workshop held in the capital airport hospital. The workshop revealed that in the capital airport hospital renovation and expansion plan launched this year, there will be 1,000 square meters of space for civil aviation emergency ambulance base construction, the future will be based on the completion of the teaching plan and temporary teaching tasks, comprehensively start the civil airport cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of automated external defibrillator training, and gradually realize the comprehensive command ability and on-site disposal capacity enhancement.
Finally, Tadpole sincerely wishes everyone a safe trip.?
Tadpole Note:
Automatic external cardiac defibrillation device: automatic external defibrilator, or AED for short.
This is the most effective machine for treating ventricular fibrillation (arrhythmia), and it is about the size of a bento box. When ventricular fibrillation occurs, the heart is short-circuited, and the electrical currents within it cause the heartbeat to begin to beat irregularly, or even in a fatal disruption of the electrical currents. If the AED can deliver a quick shock, the success rate is high. But if it fails within 10 minutes, the heart muscle will die from lack of oxygen.
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References:
"On-site First Aid for Aviation Air Emergencies," Tian Huiming and Jiao Haiming, Harbin Taiping International Airport First Aid Center, Harbin Medicine, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2009;
"Medical Emergencies on Airplanes," Lin Zhi-an, Health Great Horizons," Issue 12, 2002.?