Medical Briefcase For In-Flight Patient Evaluation

Makarand writes "On average one plane a day makes an unscheduled landing somewhere around the world when a passenger unexpectedly falls ill and requires medical attention. Diversion costs for an airline, related to fuel expenses and cost of putting people in hotels, can be anywhere between $50,000- $100,000 for each diversion. Now Airbus, in collaboration with the French Space agency, has come up with a solution in the form of a satellite-connected medical briefcase to determine if the patient needs urgent medical attention on the ground before making a diversion according to this BBC News article. A crew member with proper training can use the device to complete a medical examination of the patient in 2 minutes and download the data using satellite in real time to a hospital. A diversion is made if the emergency physician feels that the patient needs medical attention on the ground. Airbus believes that as planes get bigger, fuel efficient and fly longer hours with more number of people the chances of someone needing medical attention will increase creating a market for this device."

Comments

Hrmm

[acehole]

satellite connection huh?

Good thing I'm not in charge of it...

"this man needs urgent medical attention!"

"yeah yeah, hang on, just wait for this mp3 to finish downloading."

Hooters?

[videodriverguy]

Anyone agree the new Hooters airline might need one of these?

Of course, if they do get one, how many guys are going to fake it in order to be examined?

Not equal to MCSEs, I hope.

[SoSueMe]

A crew member with proper training can use the device to complete a medical examination of the patient in 2 minutes

Hopefully this will not be the "proper training" which lets people believe that a newly trained MCSE should have "root" access.

Dammit Jim!

[kevinvee]

I'm a co-pilot, not a doctor!

I found the manual to the machine

[select * from]

Step 1: Ask passenger if they are feeling bad. If reply is "Yes," proceed to step 2. Otherwise, pat them on the head and give them a bag of pretzels.

Step 2: Place back of hand on forehead. Does it feel warm? If so, go to step 3.

Step 3: To take a more accurate temperature reading, the use of a rectal thermometer is recommended. Tell the passenger to "assume the position". If the passenger is flying coach, they may need to have this position explained to them. If the passenger is flying first class, they will understand right away since they bent over when they bought their tickets for this flight.

Step 4: Was temperature reading above 98.6 F? If so, send passenger back to their seat. If not, go to step 5.

Step 5: Evidence suggests that passenger is dead. Tell pilot to land plane immediately.

Re:You just know it's going to happen...

[NeoSkandranon]

or perhaps even taking a slower, more eco-friendly and safer form of transport (hint: trains).


Gotta love those eco-friendly trans-atlantic train lines ;)