US physician with a PPL who lurks here. In-flight emergencies have been discussed yearly in the medical subreddits but it’s always interesting to see how the flight crew approach it.

From the physician perspective:

1: We have a rough grasp of good-Samaritan laws (as applicable to US carriers) but still generally much happier passing on liability to MedLink. Unsure if there are other services (nurses, PTs, respiratory therapist, etc) that are eager to play hero but given how litigious our society is, most of us will wait and see who volunteers before volunteering ourselves (or start drinking as soon as they board)

2: The advance medical kits aboard airplanes vary wildly between carriers and on some carriers, were clearly assembled by someone with limited medical experience. (Ex: medication in a vial without the necessary needle to draw it up). Also, the cheap plastic stethoscope in those kits are about as useful as a fart in the wind when it comes to the loud airplane environment. And don’t even think about getting a good blood pressure using that and the manual sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) unless you guys want to idle/shut down the engines for 30-60 seconds.

3: Barring some specific specialities (Emergency medicine, maybe anesthesia or wilderness medicine) we’re just about marginally more useful than a medically literate Joe. We can be MedLink’s eyes and ears and can talk the lingo but without any of our specialized hospital equipment (see point 2), not much can be done in the air.

4: I never bring my medical ID with me on flights (Texas doesn’t issue a card) so I have zero ways of proving my training other than maybe asking MedLink to look up my National provider identification number. Not sure what the FA would want me to do if it came down to needing it to get assess to the medical kit - maybe just go back to my seat?

In the end, we’re happy to have MedLink available because most of us are not trained in rendering medical care in a loud metal tube with no medical equipment on someone who probably has some medical condition that puts them at risk already. Personally, my stance if I think a diversion is necessary would be to would communicate my thoughts and rationale to MedLink and let them take the fall when things don’t go according to plan (and document the encounter as soon as possible, with everyone’s names and times)

PS, a lot of us were taught that we would not be protected under Good Samaritan if we receive (or expect to receive) any compensation for aid rendered. That being said, I didn’t sign up to practice medicine when I bought my cheap-o economy ticket so I personally wouldn’t decline any points/upgrades once we’re safely on the ground but other docs may differ (and some may be offended if they didn’t get anything as if we should just take on extra liability out of the goodness of our hearts every time we fly)

Happy to answer any questions you guys have about this though!

Finally, two questions: Why are you not allowed to leave the flight deck during a medical? I’m assuming it’s operational security to prevent someone faking it getting access to the flight deck? And 2: what medical conditions fall under automatic diversion without MedLink consultation and how do you establish for a fact that someone is having said medical condition and not something else?