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During In-Flight Emergencies, Sometimes Airlines’ Medical Kits Fall Short

In March, a Frontier Airlines flight was headed from Phoenix to Las Vegas when a female passenger stopped breathing. The flight attendant yelled in the cabin for help.To get more news about quick clot combat gauze, you can visit rusuntacmed.com official website.

A passenger who was trained as a wilderness first responder, Seth Coley, jumped into action and found the woman was unresponsive and had a weak pulse. Coley dug through the plane’s medical kit but couldn’t find an oropharyngeal airway, a tool that was supposed to be there and that he needed to help the woman breathe. Instead, he cleared the airway by manipulating her neck.

Afterward, Coley sent a message to Denver-based Frontier Airlines via an online customer service form: “I saved somebody’s life on one of your flights,” he wrote. “I would like to speak about the medical kit you guys have on your flights. You are missing some very valuable and simple things. She almost died.”

Americans are flying at levels reaching pre-pandemic numbers. While covid-19 ushered in new health and cleaning protocols designed to make airplane travel safer, incidents like Coley’s raise questions about airlines’ readiness for medical emergencies because of incomplete or insufficient medical kits and the training of flight crews, who often rely on other passengers in emergencies.

Frontier did not respond to KHN’s requests for comment about that incident or its emergency kits. But Coley’s experience illustrates the risks travelers take every time they board a flight. For every 20,000 passengers who take a flight on a U.S.-based airline, there is one medical event — defined as any health-related incident, not only emergencies — according to estimates from airplane medical services company MedAire.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires commercial aircraft to carry at least one sealed emergency medical kit containing a minimum of 25 specified instruments and medications, plus first-aid kits and automated external defibrillators. But the FAA does not track data on the use of those kits during in-flight medical emergencies. Instead, the agency leaves it to the airlines to inspect the kits and replace them if the seals are broken.

“Ensuring complete, sealed emergency medical kits are present is part of the cabin crew’s preflight inspection,” FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor said in a statement.

But, as Coley and other passengers who have responded to an in-flight emergency have found out, an item required in a medical kit can sometimes be missing. Some items the FAA doesn’t require, such as the overdose reversal drug naloxone, are carried voluntarily by some airlines. The agency has issued guidance recommending items to add to the kits, but they are not yet mandated.

Gregor said the FAA investigates all reports of issues with medical kits and ensures any concerns are addressed. He did not respond to a KHN request for details on the number of reports investigated, their outcomes, or whether the emergencies described in this article were among those investigated.

In June, Boston surgeon Dr. Andrea Merrill was aboard a Delta Air Lines flight when she assisted in a medical emergency and found the kit fell short of what she needed.

It needs “a glucometer, epi pen, and automatic blood pressure cuffs — it’s impossible to hear with a disposable stethoscope in the air,” Merrill tweeted to Delta after the incident. “Please improve this for passenger safety!”

After Merrill’s tweet went viral, Delta followed up with her, saying it would switch to automatic blood pressure cuffs and “real” stethoscopes, as well as consider glucometers at gates. Merrill declined an interview request.

Eurostar urged to carry adrenaline injectors in first-aid kit after medical alert

A junior doctor is calling for lifesaving adrenaline auto-injectors to be carried on Eurostar after caring for a young child who suffered an allergic reaction on the service.To get more news about chest seal, you can visit rusuntacmed.com official website.

Dr Raphaelle Debray, 26, who is French and works for the NHS, was en route to Paris when she responded to an appeal for a doctor. She requested the onboard medical kit and found it contained only some plasters and a defibrillator. In contrast, international guidelines state that commercial airlines should carry emergency medical kits, with equipment and medication including adrenaline. British Airways and easyJet said they carried adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs) on all flights.

Debray said: “This is not like a regular train where you can get an ambulance to come very quickly because of the time that you are underground.” She said the Eurostar medical kits should also include other medical items such as a resuscitation mask and airway stents to prevent obstructions in the upper airway.Debray has written to Eurostar urging it to upgrade its first aid kits to include an AAI, available under the brands EpiPen, Jext and Emerade. Fortunately, the child did not suffer an anaphylactic reaction during the episode caused by chocolate containing egg, and quickly recovered after the incident on 11 April.

In the letter sent to Eurostar, Debray wrote that it was “shocking” that an onboard medical kit on an international service carried only plasters and a defibrillator. “A more complete medical kit in your trains could prevent deaths or severe injuries.”

Eurostar said this weekend it would review its medical kits, but that it was prevented by government regulations from including prescription medicines, which would include AAIs. A spokesperson said: “The safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues is always our number one priority. We carry first-aid kits as well as defibrillators on each of our trains, and our onboard crew are trained in first aid.”

The spokesperson said there were exemptions to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 that permit aircraft, ships, offshore installations and schools to hold and supply some prescription medicines for emergency medical aid, but none applied to rail services. “We will be liaising with the relevant authorities about this,” the spokesperson said.

The risk to some people from severe allergies was highlighted by the case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, who died in July 2016 after suffering a severe allergic reaction on a BA flight to a baguette bought from Pret a Manger at Heathrow airport.

Natasha’s father, Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, co-founder of the charity the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said: “Access to adrenaline auto-injectors can be a matter of life or death.

‘Given the exploding numbers of severe allergic reactions among children and young people, it is obvious that first-aid kits on planes, trains, ferries and cruise liners should contain AAIs. Ministers need to reform the regulations around AAIs.”

Simon Williams, chief executive of Anaphylaxis UK, said it was vital that people who were prescribed AAIs carry them at all times. He said the charity would support a wider availability of AAIs. “Staff will need full and proper training on dealing with an emergency and administering an AAI, and legislation may need to change.”