EITM: Is There A Doctor On Board? 4/8/24

Let's go ahead and declare an emergency landing...

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
So Friday afternoon, so Jackie andmy younger one were in Houston right first
spring break. Jackie stayed for theweekend. She had to go for a
memorial service for a friend's mom whodied. Anyway, so the younger one
flew back on Friday, so hedidn't have to go to the memorial service.
So anyway, so he's flying byhimself. He's flown by himself before,
but anyway, he's eighteen. Hegets on the plane and like he'll

(00:23):
text us and go, hey,made it through security. Hey I'm at
the gate. Hey we boarded,and then you know, taken off,
see you later. And then we'llget a text when he lands. So
anyway, all of a sudden,we start getting text We get the made
it through security, made it tothe gate, made it on the plane,
see you you know mom, seeyou over the weekend. Dad,

(00:45):
I'll see at the airport like sweet. Next thing, you know, it's
about an hour into the flight,we start getting text messages from him.
Yeah, and he have internet onthe plane. The no no, no,
not allowed to spend for that.So you that first message came through
and you were like, uh ohyeah, oh very much. So so

(01:06):
he said, I ended up talkingto him. He said that about an
hour into the flight on the PAthing there is, the pilot comes on
and ask is there a medic onboard? Oh God, and he's like
m mmm. So he's like,I kept my earpod, my aarpod's out
and listen. And they asked again, and then a couple of people went

(01:30):
running to the back of the plane. Now he wasn't overly flipped out,
but there's some guy and whoever youare, dude, thank you got on
the plane, was sitting next tohim when they left Houston, and so
my kid was wearing a Miami UniversityT shirt and the guy was talking to
him was like, oh, Ihave afraid He was an older guy.

(01:52):
Buddy of mine's kid went to Miami, are you going yet? So they
have this whole conversation. Everything wasgreat and they The pilot then came on
and said, hey, just wantto let everybody know we're going to make
an emergency landing. Stay in yourseats, you know whatever. And the
guy, thank god, looks atmy kid and goes, hey, you

(02:14):
ever been in one of these before? And my kid goes no, He
goes, it ain't going to belike any other landing, he said,
I've been on he travels all thetime for work. Yeah, he said,
this is my third third time thathe's had to do an emergency landing
because of a of a medical emergency. Yeah, not like like I don't
know what happened. There was abig story over the weekend of that Southwest

(02:36):
Airlines flight where the cowling, thecowling came off. Now not a Boeing
problem, even though it is aBoeing flight. That didn't help, Yeah,
didn't, yes, but they didpoint that out. So I don't
know if it's a different emergency landingwhen like the engine's going yeah versus this.

(02:57):
But the guy looks at my kidand goes, hey, listen,
just so you know this is gonnabe a landing like you've never experienced.
My kids said that when they sothey ended up diverting to Memphis, right
that when it wasn't like you know, like if you fly into National or
wherever, you could look out thewindow and you see like you're starting to

(03:19):
sound and yeah, nope, superfast yep. And he said, and
I mean listen, the plane wasn'tgoing straight in. But that plane lands
and the guy was like they aregoing to stop all other air traffic.
We are landing fast. And mykid was like, it was crazy.
It was essentially like the nose waspointed straight down even though it wasn't,

(03:45):
and that they landed that thing,and like there's no waiting on a gate.
We don't really apply the brakes.It is just go. There's emergency
vehicles that are out on the runwaylike they went. So anyway, he
starts tech to me, somebody hada heart attack on the plane, and
I guess the medic was able toget back there, and I don't know

(04:08):
if he was already in the galleyor they schlept his body to the galley,
but they got him off of thatplane like that, And then they
told everybody that, depending on whatit is, we're going to try to
get you back in the air veryquickly. Yeah. If not, we're
going to have to put you up. And that's when my kid was flipping
out. He's like, I can'tget a hotel room. What am I

(04:29):
going to do? And I waslike, you'll sleep at the airport,
Like what do you want from me? I'm not coming to get you.
So at this point, they're stillall seated on the plane. Oh yeah,
you don't move. Okay, youdon't move now. As it turns
out, luckily, they got thedude off the plane and like thirty forty
five minutes later they were like,all right, fire it up, here
we go and they were right backin the air and made it to National

(04:51):
Yeah, thank god. Yeah,because that, I mean, it was
already an inconvenience for me, thefor your inconvenience. But I don't want
to have to start dealing with gettinghim a hotel in Memphis, and then
I would be like, you can'tgo out in Memphis. Very unsafe,
Yeah, afraid the Yeah, Imean I would have just told him to
sleep in the airport. Get overit, plug in. Going back to

(05:12):
that landing, though, did hesay others around him who hadn't maybe been
given the heads up by their fellowroamates, looked a little panicked. He
said, there was a decent amountof like like like people who are like,
ugh, like not crying, buta decent amount of like people flipping
out a little bit, especially notrealizing like tell me you're gonna land somewhere

(05:34):
and you just assume it's a regularlanding. He said, when that plane
went into dissent like people were like, not his words, but were like
white knucklin their armrests from the momentthey knew they were gonna make an emergency
landing. How long was that beforetouching down? Good question. I don't
know the answer to that. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that.

(05:57):
Damn that's scary. Can you imagine? Now? I told I was
like, dude, I've never beenin one of those, and that I've
never been in a third. Yeah. The guy who was thank god,
sitting next to my kid was like, oh, yeah, this is this.
This will be the third one thatI've been in. Not do we
have an update on the sick passenger? So like that. I mean,

(06:17):
I know that I'm asking on behalfof your mother. I know everybody else
on the plane made it to dC. I don't know in your family.
Yes, no, my mom willtell you that she has been on
multiple of these with multiple deaths.One person has that story and that's how

(06:40):
it shall remain fingers crossed, andthat would work out best for everybody.
The sick guy and your mom.Absolutely, those are the two biggest winners
in the in the incident. HiEllie in the morning. Hey, who's
asked me? Yes? Me?What can I do for you? I've

(07:00):
actually been on an emergency landing before. Dude, do they land that plane
hardcore? Yeah? They gave mea horrible headache because they landed it so
hard. Headache from the descent beingso fast, or just how like did
your head like pop the seat restwhen you landed? Oh no, my

(07:21):
head hit that chair too hard.I mean, I know, I'm not
I'm not laughing at that, butit's just I can't either. I can't
imagine how hard they put that thingdown. I don't like someone died on
the flight, and I was like, if it's if they if they died,
it's not an emergency because they're alreadydead. Okay, ma'am, ma'am.

(07:44):
You don't want to if it wouldhave been the person seated next to
you. You don't want to flythe whole time with a dead bad me.
Did you see them yeah, directlybehind you. Yeah, at least
you know they were gonna kick yourseat unless ring a mortis sets in then
that leg pop up. Hey,how they die? How they die?

(08:09):
I think they like that, likethat heart attack or something, because like
they were like really old or something, right? Did they try to did
they try to like save the person? Did they get on the PA and
ask if there was a doctor onthe plane? I think so, Well,
how do you not know you're rightthere? Because this was like three

(08:31):
years ago, I forget, nevernever took the air pods out. All
right, very good, very good, Thank you, ma'am, Thank you
so again. Yes, there wasa passenger next to your son who had
experience with this. But at nopoint during the announcements do they give you
a sense of what's about to happen. I mean, my kid didn't say

(08:52):
so. There was just like,please make sure your seat belts are so
they did say that. Well,first they asked for a doctor, and
then a little bit later they cameon and just said, you know,
you know, we're just gonna haveto We're going to divert make an emergency
landing. As you know, wehad a medical emergency. So everybody please
remain seated with your seatbelt firmly fastened, and we're going to make ourselves an

(09:13):
emergency landing. And that was it. But nothing like we're gonna land pretty
quick here. Yeah, like justsomething to give you a sense that it
may be different. Hey, watchyour head, and in three years,
good luck remembering any of this,because if if you say something like,
oh, please make sure your seatbelts are fastened, the people who don't
have them fastened are not fastening them, Well, then you know what.
Enjoy hitting your head, Enjoy enjoyyour way down. I'm worried about that

(09:35):
colors memory the three years ago.Hi Ellie in the morning. Yeah,
are you doing? Hey, I'mdoing great. What can I work?
What can I do for you?Sir? I've been in two emergency landings.
One was they lost pressure. Therewas a mechanical failure, and they

(09:56):
tell you, you know, thatmask is going to come down with what
they don't tell you. They're thereto bring that plane down as quick as
they can so that they think youcan breathe again, right, But they
never could. They never tell youthat. So the plane's shaking, it's
going down so fast. Yeah,and again I don't know if it was
shaking like My kid didn't me allthe time, but he was like,

(10:18):
we went down like we went quick. But that thing went down so fast.
The plane was shaking, The playwas shaking. The stewardess is up
front. I was in first class. The stewardesses were crying, so you're
not getting a lot of comfort fromthem. Right. Then we landed in
the middle of a small top,small place in Wymss, Mexico, which

(10:41):
didn't take that size plane. Theyhad to get another one for us.
We were there for like six hours. Everybody was drunk as can be.
There was a small bar across theacross the road. Absolutely, it was
horrible. I said goodbye to mywife on the way down because they don't
tell you. Oh, by theway, we just lost pressure. That's
it. When they came when theplane, when the plane hit back on

(11:05):
the ground, all that pressure wentright back in. One of the passengers
actually popped both their ear drums becauseit happened so fast. Did there your
drums start bleeding? Yeah, yeah, you're not mine. Somebody somebody else
on the plane. And the airlinefelt bad enough. Yeah, it wasn't.
They had the economy folks. Theyactually gave everybody fifty dollars off the

(11:28):
next flight in the future. Wow, we had to get off. They
they had to get a truck withthe ladder to get us off the plane.
I actually I actually thought that wasit. And then the other time
I was on one where somebody hada medical emergency. It was a seven

(11:48):
forty seven. They had to landat an airport that was too small for
seven forty seven, so they couldn'tfigure out how to refuel the plane to
get it back up in the air. He let me ask you this the
flight that you uh, the sevenforty seven for the emergency, the medical
emergency. Did they ask for adid they ask for a doctor, and

(12:11):
did somebody go help? Yes?So I was reading, thank you,
my friend, I was reading Ithink, don't quote me on this.
I believe they estimate, or justfrom from having been through it, about
forty percent of flights where they askfor a doctor, there is somebody with
some medical training on the on theplane, which seems high. You just

(12:35):
said some yeah, nine and ahalf. Oh yeah, no, no,
yeah, not even meeting somebody whowould say I know CPR right,
No, No, I need likemedical training, like somebody who works in
the medical field. So you haveto, okay, because like like flight
attendants have some medical training, andthere they can they can radio down and

(12:56):
get like talk to like hey dothis, But I mean you're essentially talking
to somebody goes take their temperature.Well no, duh, like you know
what I mean, Like they're readingthrough it. But at least it's something.
But you know the other thing thatI learned what there are there are
doctors. So there's two types ofand I keep saying doctors. It could
be a nurse, but just somebodywith some medical training. There are there

(13:18):
are three types of doctors on aplane. Those that will immediately jump in
and go, hey, I'm adoctor, what do I need to do?
Let me assist. Number two anybodyelse go oh, like they don't
want to get involved, all right, here we go. And then number

(13:39):
three not even even if they're theonly one, they still won't help one
hundred percent. One hundred percent.And you want to have that on your
conscience. If a person doesn't survive, I'm just going on vacation. Are
they they don't want to get involvedbecause they're worried about liability or so you

(14:00):
know how if a doctor or ifyou or I found somebody on the side
who was choking and we broke theirribs, yea, we're not liable for
like that Samaritan, right, Andin a lot of cases, if a
doctor like sees an emergency in acar accident or something. There they could
go in and pull you out anddo that and there, and they are
not liable for that. That's notalways the case in the air. So

(14:26):
they don't want Number one, theydon't want the liability. Well, let's
change those laws. Yeah. Numbertwo, it's not my field of expertise.
Okay, I get that. SoI read about one guy who was
a heart surgeon and there was somekind of medical emergency and his wife was
like, are you going to go? They said, Did they say they

(14:48):
needed a heart surgeon? Oh?Man, because that's what I can do
neutral zone. Yeah, but Idon't know. I don't know, like
you know, if he if he'shaving you know, a seizure or something,
I can't to help them. LikeI'm probably better than you, right,
but I'm not an expert in thisfield. Number Three, these aren't

(15:09):
like great working conditions. No,they said, a lot of times they
schlepped the body into the galley andhope it makes room, but there's really
no room to do any And theysaid, the line of doctors who have
just sat in their seat and pretendedlike sleeping is so long you'd be amazed.
Dan's right at the conscience. Ohyeah, if that person dies on

(15:33):
your flight and you didn't do anything, I'm a heart surgeon, would they
land sooner or go for that emergencylanding if there are no medics on board
or I should say medics, butpeople with training. I don't know the
answer to that, Like what arethe determining factors on what makes for you
can save their lives? Diversion?I guess they're alive and you could save
their lives, But like, ifsomeone faints they're not landing, would they

(15:58):
faint from I don't know. I'ma heart surgeon. You know who you
want on your flight? An EMTOh good one er doctor or er nurse
because they see versus everything egencies ofall types. Yeah, but also the
guy who and the guy who's aheart surgery is like, yeah, I
went through medical school, I've beendoing heart surgery for the last fifteen years.

(16:21):
I'm not up on whatever. Sogood. Yeah, but you have
to say, like, Okay,if this same heart surgeon saw one of
their friends, you know, collapseon a golf course, so they're going
to go like, well, I'ma heart surgeon, Well I'm golfing with
my friend, Like that's a lotdifferent than I'm going to drag a body
into the gallery and get sued.I don't know that would I feel like

(16:45):
lead to one of those I mean, this now sounds like a novel,
but like it leads to you beingineffective back at your own job. No,
I go right back to the hospital. And I get back from vacation.
By the way, I've already allthe room. I have already had
two cocktails. I mean, youknow, that's the other thing. It's
not like doctors sit on the planegoing well, I can't have a drink.

(17:06):
You never know. I boozed upbefore we even got on the flight.
Everybody drinks on flights, They drinkbefore they get on. Not everybody.
I know a guy who was sittingfirst class landed in Mexico. He
was drinking with doctors. Say again, was he a doctor? No,
but he was pissed. So yeah, your heart surgeon may be he may
be on his way for a fora for a vacation. And I'm four

(17:30):
bourbons in Where am I going?Line seven? Hi Ellie in the morning.
Yeah, Hi, who's this?This is Matt? Yes, Matt,
what can I do for you?Yeah? So a couple of years
before my grandpa died, we decidedto go on a family vacation. He

(17:51):
was on oxygen at the time,and they made us get like a portable
oxygen tank so he could take iton the plane. And when he got
on thee they made him force itunderneath the seat and unknowingly kinked the hose
to the oxygen line. And inthe middle of the plane, I'll sit
next to him and I turned tothe right to tell him the story,

(18:11):
and he was completely passed out andwe had to do emergency landing in Jacksonville
in the middle of the night.How fast did they put that plane down?
Hard? If they did, Ihad to get out of my seat.
Like four nurses rushed over and theytook care of them and were able
to get them back breathing. Andthen he was in hospital for three days
until we continued the family vacation.Holy crap, But at least you had

(18:33):
so you had four nurses come runningover to help. At least. Oh
wow, did they lay him downin the aisleway? I think they laid
him down on the chair in therow. I can't remember exactly, but
I just remember it was a Itwas a pretty panic scene, and it
seemed to have been stemmed from thefact that they made him push that oxygen

(18:56):
thing underneath the seat and it kinkedthe hose. But I would listen to
my music on my phone and Iturned to him to tell him something and
he's not breathing. God, damn, that would be That would be scary.
That would be really scary scary.But you know what, we got
to the airport and they had theambulances on the tarmac and we had a
golf Yeah, it was a wholescene. Now, my kid did say

(19:18):
that part was pretty cool of likeall the emergency vehicles, Thank you,
my friend. Oh one other thing, if I could go back to being
a doctor for a second. Now, here's the other thing that doctors hate.
If there's an emergency. So I'ma doctor, right, I've got
I've got noise canceling headphones on andI'm sleeping and they asked for a doctor.
Here's the other thing they hate.Honey, wake up, they need

(19:41):
a doctor. Don't wake me up. Don't wake me up. So they
hate their spouses. I'm coming outnow. Relationship number. I had so
much wine, I took a napyou're waking me up. I got to
go perform some some meta. I'ma hard surgeon. This guy's got you

(20:02):
know what, unkink your hose?Yes, Tom, I can't imagine hearing
a couple fight about that while there'san emergency and I'm sitting behind them.
Did she wake me up? FromInstagram? Was on a recent flight where
I responded as a nurse to oneof two medical emergencies on the same flight.

(20:23):
Neither one required an emergency landing.The first was for a seizure.
The second one was for fainting,but they initially thought it was cardiac arrest.
Wow, and they responded to twosame flight response. She responded to
one of the two, Wow,and what on the other one? She
was like, I've already done onesleep in? Oh, she touched the

(20:44):
side of her nose, not it. Oh. She actually may have been
both. I assume they were atthe same time, but I guess that's
not the case though. Reading backfor her original message, jeez, dude,
you better give me a free flight. Bailed your ass out twice.
Is there some sort of I'd loveto hear from a doctor who passed,
say again, is there some sortof honor or recognition that when somebody responds

(21:07):
and helps, the airline bestows uponthem. I don't know. The only
thing that, oh, I don'tknow the only thing my kid told me
is that when they finally landed atNational a bunch of people clapped. Yeah,
but I do that when it's windy. So I don't know. I
have no idea. I'd love fora doctor to call and tell me,
but a doctor isn't going to comeout and say they didn't do it.
They want anonymity. Push on yourAdam's apple. Hi, Elliott the morning,

(21:32):
Hey Elliott, this is Marcy andColumbia. Hey Marcy, what can
I do for you? So?When I was ten months old, I
was on a flight and I hadthis terrible fever and doctor diagnosed me with
bacterioman andis and they had to makean emergency landing and had an ambulance waiting
for me and saved my life.Wait, so you were the cause of

(21:52):
the emergency landing. Yes, Oh, but it sucks. You were ten
months old. You don't even rememberit. I don't, but it was
crazy afterwards because my parents were stuckin Miami, had no family. I
was in the ICU for like twoweeks. It was crazy. Wow,
and were little and they just lefthim with family somewhere. I didn't you

(22:15):
know, and you had meningitis.Is there a concern for the other patients
safety as well being exposed to you? I don't think so. It wasn't
that long of a flight. Itwas only a couple of hours. But
nobody else got sick as far asI know. But my parents tried to
track down the doctor and they weren'tnever able to find him who was on

(22:36):
the flight? Wow? No kidding? Wait? Is that how you get
gitis? Is from being close proxssittorysecretion type deal. Well, you won't
get it. I mean even backthen you were wearing eight masks on a
flight. Yes, when she wasten, ten months? Ten months?
Yeah, all right, let megray, thank you. I'm glad you're
better now. Well maybe hi Elliein the morning, Good morning everyone.

(23:00):
Hey, who is this? I'man airline pilot and I've been a pilot
for about over thirty years, soI have experienced that from a pilot perspective,
and I don't know if you hadany questions for me. I do,
First of all, how many howmany times have you had to make
emergency landings, about a half adozen, maybe ten, all of them

(23:22):
medical or mechanical. No. Twoor three medical. The rest were mechanical.
It's been I don't know if youcan consider a weather an emergency for
diverting, but the medical ones thatyou're talking about, I've done and it's
not as dynamic as you're making itsound. So I wanted to rest assure
passengers that if there is a medicalemergency on board, it's not going to

(23:47):
be you know, crazy wild,you know the type of picture that you're
painting right now. Oh no,no, by the way, I quickly,
I hope I'm not doing that.No, my At no point did
my kids feel unsafe or that itwas hysteria. He was just like I
was not expecting the plane to landlike it did, Like that plane goes
down. Yeah. Yeah. Sowhen we descend quickly, we use speed

(24:12):
brakes that if you're seeing near anear a window or by the wing and
looking out, you see those bigpanels that come up on the wings.
Well, that creates the shaking thatoccurs whenever you descend, right, So
you're going to descend quickly when you'rediverting into a different airport and you ride
above it or something, and that'sprobably what created the shake to shaking when
you're descending, and most in theemergency for the medical situations, you don't

(24:40):
want to hurry too much because youcould, you know, cause you could
forget things you could not. Youknow, you have some procedures you have
to take care of pretty quickly beforeyou land, and you have to make
sure those are all done. Soit doesn't happen as fast as as most
people would think. And it doeshappen though that you know where we get
a lot of a medical issues wherepeople like Kyler were saying people pass out

(25:04):
the early morning flights. And I'llput this out there because people don't get
enough sleep and they don't eat well, and they don't take care of themselves
before they get on the plane.So of all places, when you go
into Miami in the mornings, earlyin the mornings, or out of a
place like Vegas, where people tendto have redulge the night before the flight,

(25:26):
right, they get lightheaded, theyget dizzy, they don't take care
of themselves, and they pass out. Oh yes, you know, that's
good to know. I like that, but I don't like that it happens,
but that's good info. So ifsomebody passes out flying out of Miami,
you just go like, oh,well, got another and here we
go kind of like that. Yeah, but we do take it seriously,

(25:48):
and we do ask for medical personnel. So you're talking about who it's doctors,
medical doctors, and you know,we have to be specific about that.
And then nurses, e mts andeven position assistant step up. People
really step up. I'm always impressedby the medical community and how they do
volunteer. It's a volunteer. Imean, they're not getting paid for what
they're doing. Back there. Iread about it always somebody step up.

(26:11):
I read about a heart surgeon whojust like they I've heard about that too,
But you know, how do wereally know? Yeah? Right,
no, I'm with you. Lestthey tell us, hey, last last
thing for you? If I ifI may, well, last two things,
last two things anything. If it'sBoeing, I'm not going like I

(26:33):
shouldn't follow that, right, LikeI'm good, I'm good. No,
No, okay, no, ifit ain't Boeing, I ain't going.
Oh wait, you wouldn't. Youwouldn't fly on a Boeing plane right now,
I love Boeing, Oh, Ilove all aircraft. Aircraft are super
safe, absolutely, and if they'reand hell if they're, If they're under
that kind of scrutiny, they're probablyeven more safe about the others because they're

(26:55):
over checked and over scrutinized. Rightabout restaurants, oh wait, busted in
dirty dining, right? Absolutely,I want to be there the day after
they get a date.