Our flight to Singapore left San Francisco around midnight on Christmas Eve. About 2 hours into the flight they asked if there was a doctor on the plane. Our group leader, Dave, isn't a doctor but he use to work as a paramedic. He got up to see if it was something minor that he could help with. Several hours later I noticed Dave was still gone and his wife hadn't seen him since he got up to help. About half way through the flight the lights were still out and most of the cabin was sleeping when suddenly all the lights came on and the captain announced that we had received clearance for an immediate emergency landing in Narita, Japan to get a passenger to the hospital. The plane was still too heavy to land, so we first had to dump a bunch of fuel in the ocean. It was 3am Tokyo time when we landed and an ambulance was waiting on the tarmac. Unfortunately the airport didn't open till 6am, so we had to sit around on the hot plane for several hours.
During the long wait Dave came back to fill us in on what happened. When he first saw the sick passenger there was already a GP doctor who claimed he was dead. Dave detected a slight pulse and started CPR. Dave asked if the plane had adrenaline shots (not sure what you really call that). They did, but the real doctor refused to use it (Dave's not sure if the doctor was just to nervous or if he was afraid of the liability). The pilot was also reluctant to give Dave the needles due to security concerns. Dave convinced the pilot that the passenger would die without it and eventually he was given the needles and drugs. Dave injected adrenaline & dopamine into his heart and was able to get the man stabilized (a stewardess said it was like that scene in Pulp Fiction). At this point Dave asked the pilot to land at the nearest airport. Well apparently you can't just land a 747 anywhere and over the Pacific the options are limited. The pilot said we could either turn around and fly an hour back to Anchorage, Alaska or 3 hours farther to Japan. Dave voted for Alaska since it was closer, but the pilot was hesitant since Singapore Airlines doesn't have equipment to service the plane at Anchorage and that would mean at least a day delay, lots of missed connections, hotels bill and generally lots of expense for the airline. So we continued on toward Japan. On the way the patient got worse a couple times and Dave gave him several more injections. The captain was so thankful the Dave was able to save the passenger's life (and probably thankful that he didn't have to land in Anchorage) that he move Dave, his wife and 2 kids up to first class for the rest of the trip through Hong Kong and Singapore. Luckily we had a long layover in Singapore, so we didn't miss our connection to Phuket and as far as we know the passenger survived.
I find it a bit unsettling that the real doctor refused to help, but this makes me wonder if in such a situation if you're not better off with a paramedic who IS accustomed to emergencies.
