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An academic emergency department (ED) that provides real-time medical advice via a communications center to several airlines analyzed its database of 12,000 calls over nearly 3 years.
There was one emergency per 600 flights. Syncope or pre-syncope were the most common symptoms, with respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms following behind. A physician passenger assisted about half the time. Diversion to an unscheduled destination occurred about 7% of the time. Oxygen was used in half the incidents, while nitroglycerin and aspirin were used in only about 1 in 20 incidents (all three are in the now-standardized medical emergency kit). Roughly one third of the events resolved before landing. Of the remaining patients, who were met by emergenc…