Is there a doctor on the plane?

Kiran Somani knows what it's like to be faced with a real emergency

In the movies, and occasionally in the news, doctors are depicted as heroic figures capable of performing amazing life saving feats. They appear out of the crowd at just the right moment, and with their knowledge and resourcefulness return an ill fated stranger to perfect health. But in fact although doctors everywhere provide a huge service, few real life medics find themselves in situations as dramatic as those seen on the television and in the movies.

At the end of May I completed my intercalated course and was looking forward to a last long trip abroad before returning to the fourth year of medicine. A friend and I had decided a long relaxing break in South America sounded perfect. The tickets were booked immediately.

After boarding the plane we both relaxed into our seats grinning with anticipation of what was to come. During the flight we did our best to have a good time, aided by the in-flight films, music, and refreshments. Everything was great, no pressure or stresses to bother us. University and work were long forgotten.

Several hours into the journey we were slowly beginning to plan the details of our holiday. Suddenly the in-flight film and music were interrupted by a message over the public address system. It was requesting any doctors on the plane to make themselves known to the crew as soon as possible. As it became clear that there were no qualified doctors on the plane Giles, my travel partner, and I, who had instinctively sunk as low as possible in our seats, gestured for the air steward to see if we could offer our services.

We were taken to the back of the plane where an Ecuadorian passenger was lying across a row of seats. Using equipment provided by the steward, we found that the guy had a high fever and a low blood pressure. He was also shivering and unable to respond to any of our questions, slowly becoming less responsive.

It would be great if we had been able to switch into our own hero modes and restore the patient's health, but quite simply we didn't have a clue where to begin or what to do. Not only had we both just had a year off, but there wasn't a lot of information to work with anyway.

Quite simply we didn't have a clue where to begin or what to do

The steward gave us the standard issue drugs case kept on the plane. This big silver box contained several intravenous options for us to choose from. From the little information we had gathered we weren't sure what the problem could have been and were pretty clueless as to what to do. We began to feel increasingly useless as all we could do was try and keep the poor guy comfortable. The paracetamol we gave him seemed like little more than a token gesture. And as this guy seemed to simply get worse we felt increasingly inadequate.

To our great relief we eventually landed at an airport en route where an ambulance was standing by to take over. The man, who was now barely conscious, was taken to a nearby hospital where we hope he made a full recovery.

Having volunteered ourselves without much time to consider the consequences, the situation we found ourselves in was terrifying. Initially I was left feeling hugely inadequate and almost regretting ever admitting that I was a medical student. To be fair there was in fact very little more that we could have done. Trying to have done any more than we actually did would very possibly have done more harm than good.