Chennai: Medical emergencies occurring when you’re closer to the heavens than the ground, aren’t a rarity anymore. With the burst in Indian aviation and low cost flying, more people are taking to the skies - exponentially increasing the possibility of having a mid-air emergency.
“There is a large difference between treating a patient on the ground and up in the air,” says Dr A P Chakraborty, AGM (Medical), Air India, “From delivering babies to handling stretcher patients who are being air-lifted for an emergency, we see such cases on almost a daily basis,” he adds.
With the number of sick patients being accommodated on Indian planes having almost doubled in the first two months of 2015, crews have their work cut out.
While you may have thought that the pretty flight steward who served you coffee and stale food was limited to said tasks, all of them who don their uniforms have to clear DGCA mandated medical emergency training programmes, “We have a medical training centre in Hyderabad and on induction we put them through three days of training,” he tells us. A Jet Airways spokesperson also chips in by saying that all cabin crew are given first aid training for 7 days - with due emphasis given to practical hands-on training via simulated medical emergencies.
As part of their refresher courses, staff are also given training to handle passengers’ psychological stress and counsel them in tight situations.
Though most of Air India’s planes have the all-important defibrillator on board - to shock a patient’s heart back into sinus rhythm if they have a heart attack - none of the domestic carriers have one.
21/03/15 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express
“There is a large difference between treating a patient on the ground and up in the air,” says Dr A P Chakraborty, AGM (Medical), Air India, “From delivering babies to handling stretcher patients who are being air-lifted for an emergency, we see such cases on almost a daily basis,” he adds.
With the number of sick patients being accommodated on Indian planes having almost doubled in the first two months of 2015, crews have their work cut out.
While you may have thought that the pretty flight steward who served you coffee and stale food was limited to said tasks, all of them who don their uniforms have to clear DGCA mandated medical emergency training programmes, “We have a medical training centre in Hyderabad and on induction we put them through three days of training,” he tells us. A Jet Airways spokesperson also chips in by saying that all cabin crew are given first aid training for 7 days - with due emphasis given to practical hands-on training via simulated medical emergencies.
As part of their refresher courses, staff are also given training to handle passengers’ psychological stress and counsel them in tight situations.
Though most of Air India’s planes have the all-important defibrillator on board - to shock a patient’s heart back into sinus rhythm if they have a heart attack - none of the domestic carriers have one.
21/03/15 Daniel Thimmayya/New Indian Express
No comments:
Post a Comment