What really happens during a medical emergency on planes
Is there a doctor on board?
It’s the announcement that nobody wants to hear (and presumably make) on board a flight, but what really happens during a mid-air medical emergency?
Do doctors have to help?
Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Tony Bartone told ABC Health there are a few considerations for doctors and medical staff in an emergency situation.
"First of all, there is no common-law requirement for doctors to provide assistance in an emergency. However, we all would readily subscribe to, there is an ethical need or calling or responsibility to provide assistance," he said.
"If we are in a situation where we've got no impairment, so basically if someone's been on a plane and drinking and drinking perhaps because they are relaxed, they're not on duty, they've got to make that call.
"And so there's a balance between their current state and the ethical responsibility to provide care to someone in an emergency."
Are doctors liable?
Short answer is no.
As Dr Bartone explained to ABC: "There is good Samaritan legislation and coverage that basically, as long as a doctor is performing care to the best of their ability in a situation where obviously they don't have a pre-existing relationship with that patient — they don't know their medical history but provide care to the competency that would be expected by anybody else in their situation they would be covered and there would be no liability or proceedings against them.”