Strangers on a Plane

Did you ever get the talkity talk seat mate while traveling?  I have been post 24 hour call or have just come off several night shifts in a row the most recent times I have traveled, so I have basically fallen asleep from just before take off to just before landing.  I have become conditioned to waking up the minute my ears start sensing pressure changes in the cabin.  Seriously, my ears start to pop, I wake up, the captain gets on the loud speaker and announces we're on final approach.  Sleeping is the only way to travel.  Wake up and you're in a whole new place.



However, I have been traveling with my husband lately, and we've been meeting a series of gabby travelers during our journeys.  We had the "Name Dropper" who talked loudly and passionately all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles about her friend's wedding, who was going to be at her friend's wedding, the Who's Who who would be at the wedding and how they were all connected to this other Who's Who, etc.  This is one of those times I am glad cell phones are not allowed to be used during flights.


We met "The Local" who spent the entire trip talking about local restaurants and hotels and recommending places we visit.  She was not discouraged at all by fact that we would only be in town for a day and continued to regale us with stories of places she had been 15 years before which she felt would probably still be open and as wonderful as she remembered them to be.  All this while pouring liquor from the two small bottles she brought on the 50 minute flight into her soda.


I am sure there will be more as we make our way across the Pacific Northwest... at least it's better than getting that baby who cries the whole trip... or is it?

Safety Dance

I am training to be an Emergency Medicine physician, but sometimes I wonder how I would do in an actual emergency. I mean, I can run a trauma or cardiac arrest code without much problem on my own turf. But, how would I hand a situation at 36,000 feet?

Obviously, most of us won’t be faced with a situation like Wallace who relieved a tension pneumothorax with a wire hanger, a catheter and a bottle of brandy. However, I would like to think I could handle something reasonably simple. A bump on the head from a piece of falling luggage?

The British Medical Journal in 2000 ran an article listing the top 10 medical emergencies as: chest pain, collapse, asthma, head injury, psychiatric problems, abdominal problems, diabetes, allergic reactions, and OB-Gyn emergencies. Since 1986, most airlines carry an AED, and most also carry oxygen and some basic medical supplies. A study in 2008 by USA Today stated that three overseas airlines and only one US airline seem to do more than carry the minimum medical equipment.

Of course, I didn’t think about what could potential be in this particular aircraft’s safety kit as I sat watching the other passengers start to board the airplane: the morbidly obese person who was wiping sweat off their face as they hurried aboard, the obviously pregnant woman who was pacing around the waiting area, the barrel-chested passenger who looked as if they couldn’t wait to land to be able to pull out their cigarette pack and take their next drag, the laughing out loud been-at-the-airport-bar-during-their-layover pair, and the other 50 or so ticking time bombs of potentially unknown medical problems.

Armed with my medical knowledge and last year’s ACEP presentation “101 Uses for a Safety Pin and Duct Tape” I boarded, thinking in my head, “Surely you can’t be serious?” “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.”