Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Lufthansa's new selling point: "There is a doctor on board"
80 percent of flights have a doctor on board.
Posted by Kevin |
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Comments:
My first thought was, "That would be a great deal! Where do I sign up?" I fly ever so often and would help in an emergency anyway, so why not get compensation for it?
Then reality set in, and I considered the medmal risk. Good Samaritan laws protect doctors from being sued if they are just trying to help in an emergency, but the law is voided if the doctor is paid. If I get frequent flyer miles or gifts for "volunteering" my services, am I being paid? Would that mean I am legally liable? In Europe, my guess is no, but in sue-happy USA, I would not risk it without guarantees.
Then reality set in, and I considered the medmal risk. Good Samaritan laws protect doctors from being sued if they are just trying to help in an emergency, but the law is voided if the doctor is paid. If I get frequent flyer miles or gifts for "volunteering" my services, am I being paid? Would that mean I am legally liable? In Europe, my guess is no, but in sue-happy USA, I would not risk it without guarantees.
I was the doctor on board on a flight when a fellow passenger suffered a TIA/stroke. After I spoke to the pilot, he landed the plane within 15 minutes at a field with EMT's waiting and a good sized medical center with a stroke protocol team a few miles away. The airline gave me $200 certificate for one of their flights. What would have happened on a trans-atlantic flight is anyone's guess. This person got to appropiate care faster than if he'd been at home.
There were two other physicians on board, an orthopod and a psychiatrist. As the only internist, I had the baton.
There were two other physicians on board, an orthopod and a psychiatrist. As the only internist, I had the baton.
# posted by 
: 4:10 PM
: 4:10 PM
At a lecture on flight medicine, the lecturer told a story about a physican who was sued for volunteering to help on a flight. It was a patient who was having an asthma attack and eventally died in hospital. They sued the docs at the hospital, so they threw him in like they often do. He eventually was dropped, but he had to lay out expenses to defend himself and travel to the lawsuit site. I wouldn't volunteer myself on a flight, on the beach, in church or anywhere in this sue-crazy society.
# posted by : 7:01 PM
: 7:01 PM
I wouldn't volunteer either. I imagine that lawyers would hold you to "the standard of care" when you are in a situation where the resources to provide said standard are not available.
# posted by : 8:49 PM
: 8:49 PM
Non-doctor here...
Could you not just enroll in the program and practice "conservative" medicine in case of an emergency? Obviously if you try to perform an in-flight thoracotomy and botch it you would be a target for a lawsuit, but what if you merely provide stabilization until more help arrives?
Could you not just enroll in the program and practice "conservative" medicine in case of an emergency? Obviously if you try to perform an in-flight thoracotomy and botch it you would be a target for a lawsuit, but what if you merely provide stabilization until more help arrives?
Then you merely avoid one more bogus claim in a lawsuit...or do you? Someone will probably hold you accountable for not doing that thoracotomy with a spork. That would be an error of omission. I never travel as a "doctor" on the flight manifest. Care is all or none in this circumstance. The flight attendants can hold the passengers hand as well as I can.
I wonder what the percentage of lawyers on airline flights is? I'm sure many are more than capable of managing any medical emergency based on the claims I have seen in lawsuits. And I'm sure they could fly the plane too if the pilot passed out.
I wonder what the percentage of lawyers on airline flights is? I'm sure many are more than capable of managing any medical emergency based on the claims I have seen in lawsuits. And I'm sure they could fly the plane too if the pilot passed out.
# posted by : 10:12 PM
: 10:12 PM
I didn't realize you could be sued for refusing to operate in situations where you felt you were not capable of doing the job correctly. I read an article a woman in North Carolina who died in the hospital because no neurosurgeons would operate because they considered the surgery too high risk and were afraid of getting sued if it turned out badly. Can you get sued for not doing an emergency surgery? What if the specific care the patient needs is something you haven't had experience with since your residency 20 years ago. Surely the lawyers don't think you should try it anyway?
If they were on call for the hospital and they were trained in Neurosurgery, they certainly can be sued for failure to act. It's onme of the problems in several of the raped specialties: You can be sued if you come to that fork in the road, and choose either path. These Neurosurgeons could have been sued if they did the surgery and had a bad outcome. The example in my specialty. Emergency Medicine, is TPA. If you give a patient TPA and they bleed to death, you can be sued, even if you explained the risks. If you withhold TPA, due to the bleeing risks, you can be sued for withholding treatment. So you pray that nobody comes to the ER with that problem.
# posted by : 12:19 PM
: 12:19 PM
From reading all this, isn't it sad the physicians can't offer medical aid - on the road, in the air, on a ship - without fear of lawsuit? I would think that the general population would welcome any type of help whatsoever, but these professionals will hold back for fear of the consequences of their help? What type of society do we live in?
# posted by : 1:01 PM
: 1:01 PM
Jim Sokolove. Though he doesn't actually sodomize. Hes a figure on TV who outsources plaintiffs when they call him. He makes his money from the referrals. And from the fact that his wife makes a fortune as the owner of "Stephanies" restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston. Docs should really boycott that place. I actually diud my residency with his nephew, who believe it or not was a cool guy, despite his Auschwitz like last name.
# posted by : 5:06 PM
: 5:06 PM
Lufthansa is carrying insurance to cover anyone who registers so you would actually be in a better position.
# posted by : 12:32 PM
: 12:32 PM
1) Lufthansa carries insurance to indemnify you in event of a claim.
2) Today, the first SIX advertisements are for medical malpractice attorneys!! What give's! You are worried about providing emergency medical care over the Atlantic, and you have 6 ads for malpractice attorneys on the same page. You guys need a course in risk management. The risk isn't on an airplane, its ON THIS WEBSITE!
2) Today, the first SIX advertisements are for medical malpractice attorneys!! What give's! You are worried about providing emergency medical care over the Atlantic, and you have 6 ads for malpractice attorneys on the same page. You guys need a course in risk management. The risk isn't on an airplane, its ON THIS WEBSITE!
# posted by : 3:36 PM
: 3:36 PM
I generally let the flight attendants know, as I board, that I'm a physician, in case of an emergency. Ours may be a society in which people look to take advantage of one another, but refusing to take care of a person having a medical emergency in flight is just pushing society further in that direction. The only compensation I expect is good karma, which is convertible into finding parking spaces in midtown Manhattan.
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# posted by : 11:55 PM
: 11:55 PM
