National Safety Council has recently announced an alliance with Southwest Airlines. Plans to train SW Airlines ground crew in First Aid/CPR/AED use has expanded to include training their airline’s Flight Attendants as well. Apparently Flight Attendant training is not required, which I have to ask as a more and more frequent passenger on airplanes, who is required or capable of taking care of someone who has a medical emergency while in flight? Is this a well-known fact? Is the best option: “Is there a doctor or nurse on board?”

A scenario occurred a few months ago while Allison and I were traveling to Vegas for yet another trade show. We happened to speak to our flight’s pilot prior to getting on board and he asked us about our business. We explained about our Emergency Instruction Refresher and made the comment that perhaps his airline would benefit from such a tool. He agreed and took our cards.

A few minutes later when we were ready to taxi-back, we heard that eerily familiar “Is there a doctor or nurse on board?” After asking three times, no one responded. The pilot came out of the cockpit, looked to us and asked if we had the SafetyMate. Allison shook her head “no,” pointed at MY head and said “No, but she wrote it so she knows it!”

I went to the middle of the plane where a woman was in the middle of having an epileptic seizure. No one knew what to do. One of the flight attendants was standing over her with a cup of orange juice. We got a folded blanket and put it under her head to protect it from hitting the armrest. We covered her body with a blanket in case she lost control of her bladder or bowels. Everyone was frightened and thankful we hadn’t taken off yet. Despite the fact that we were still sitting at the gate, the sheriffs did not get on board for ten or eleven minutes. Once they assessed the situation, they left and another 10 minutes passed before the medics arrived.

I was able to offer the medics information about the woman- that she did not have any medical jewelry on, that she had no medications in her bag, that the first seizure had lasted about five minutes and that she had started a second seizure.

She was taken off the plane and I hope is healthy today. This event was quite disturbing to both me and Allison as we pondered what would have happened had it been just a few minutes later - once we were in the air.

I certainly thought that Flight Attendants were trained in some way, shape or form. While I applaud SW Airlines on their step forward, I have to question why all airlines are not taking the same step.