Is there a Doctor on the plane??

[Hoppinggreen]

I had an experience yesterday that was a bit "is there a Doctor on the plane?", although obviously not as impressive and I was wondering if anyone else has had similar, even if it was just something very minor, maybe a bit niche that you happened to know or can do.
I popped into our local petrol station to collect a parcel yesterday and there was a man holding a piece of paper and speaking to the attendant. As walked in the attendant looked at me and said I have no idea what he is saying he doesn't speak English, I don't suppose you know what he is saying do you?
The man turned to me and started speaking an EU language I speak very well.
Directions given, all sorted.
I am not talking about an actual Doctor on a plane situation here or anything lifesaving just a moment when someone said "I don't suppose you happen to know ............. do you?"

Life puts you where you need to be!!!

I can imagine that was a strange experience.

I've provided medical assistance in a number of situations. On a plane, a 1st class passenger was dizzy and not feeling well. He hadn't taken his meds and was clearly getting drink on whiskey. He was fine after some water. I was given a bottle of champagne!

Another flight, someone had poured hot coffee down their front.

Shopping at my local street market, an elderly woman behind the table didn't look well and was being propped up by other staff. I helped her to the floor, raised her legs and called an ambulance. Under the table, the stall owners large dog ate all my lamb chops! I was a regular at that veg stall and was pretty annoyed that they never offered to replace the chops nor give me a few veg for free for my time/help. The woman was the mother of a famous comedian.

Lots of other occasions, but these are the ones I recall the most.

OOh, an actual Doctor on the plane scenario!
Also hoping for examples of where a very minor skill or piece of knowledge cam in handy too.

I recently had to help someone order a kitchen in our local John Lewis equivalent. They were American, and only seemed to speak English. And English isn’t the spoken language here so they were a bit stuck.
I think another kitchen assistant had spoken English to them the week before to do the first 90%, so it was just final things and the first assistant obviously wasn’t there that day.
They bought ds some lego as a thank you

Years ago at dsis school play an old lady in the row in front of us collapsed(thankfully during interval). Dm was a gp so had to quickly take charge, thankfully she survived(it was a stroke). Another time dm and I were having lunch in a local pub when a staff member came running to get dm, a customer had collapsed with chest pains.

Car crash outside my house a week after I’d done a first aid course.

called 999 and then kept the driver awake and calm whilst we waited on emergency services

I was on a train back from London and the train stopped outside a station down an embankment for ages. Tannoy asked if there were any doctors on board. There was pretty much a coach load on their way back from a conference.

The driver had noticed a downed cable so stopped the train and got out, and got electrocuted. Thankfully he pulled through.

I had recently completed my hostile environment trauma and first aid course and was able to step in an support a man collapsed in the farm shop. The staff sadly didn't know what to do at all and although I applied cpr for a considerable time until the paramedics arrived he didn't make it. I always wonder if the staff had had first aid skills they would have felt confident to start cpr and not just leave him in the recovery position - they had not noticed or realised he was in cardiac arrest. Even while I was helping him, he had agonal breathing and they said oooh stop he's breathing, he's waking up! (and I was thinking like, guys, he's been gone for a while now). An AED would have been a good thing to have on hand and its true that CPR outside of medical setting is not a miracle thing - but he was with his elderly dad and I felt that at least, his dad knew that people were trying to help his son.

The best part was all of us jammed into an aisle, me doing cpr, shop guy on the phone to 999, shop lady doing rescue breaths, my mum and dad supporting the dad.... and a lady with a buggy tried to push past, excuse me can I just get through here..... I was like, read the room love.

never hesitate to try or to ask if people need help - you won't get into trouble for helping and it might just be the thing that's needed

It hasn’t happened to me yet, but I am a Dr (of the PhD sort) and usually use my Dr title for booking travel as often in the past it would be work related (not anymore as no funding for any of us to ever travel anymore 😩). But Dh is always in a fluster in case there is some actual medical emergency on the plane and I am called on to step up with my impressive scientific knowledge, but total lack of lifesaving skills. I always say that I’ll certainly give it a go if I’m the best option they have going. 😂

Dh (who is not a Dr of any sort) did once save a guy’s life who had hacked his leg off with an ax in the middle of a forest in Wales. He and BIL managed to bandage him up and drive him in the back of a pickup to a waiting ambulance. He actually still has the ax somewhere because it got chucked in the truck but left behind by paramedics. Grim. Of the two of us, despite my Dr credentials, he’s definitely the one you want in an emergency. Not me!

@mindutopia I would love to see that. Someone spark out on the floor and you explaining the composition of plutonium or whatever to them!!

( not really)

DH is an emergency doctor. He has had a Dr on a plane situation. Someone confused feeling dizzy for heart attack.
We also got interrupted in Thailand when we were having sex because he had checked in using his title and someone needed a Dr! He doesn't do that anymore!

My superpower is fixing small fiddly things. Doing up clasps on jewellry, fixing exploded pens, unknotting un-unknottable things, that sort of stuff.

DP and DD discovered this very early on, and it frustrates them no end that for example: they can spend 20 minutes trying to screw on the ball on the end of DDs helix piercing, and then I come home from the pub, and 4 pints in, still do it within 10 seconds.

They will however happily volunteer me to fix other peoples stuff, or bring me their friends horribly tangled christmas lights to sort out.

Which was how one day, I found myself summoned to try and do up the wedding dress of a woman I'd only met twice before, after the entirety of her family and bridesmaids had tried and utterly failed. I'd like to say I was at least partly responsible for a long and happy marriage, but they didn't make it to 18 months so I probably shouldn't have bothered.

I’ve been on a plane where they’ve asked for a doctor. I expect it’s quite common. I’ve also been on a plane where the woman opposite had a turn and was being given oxygen, she was very elderly. That one was a small plane and coincided with quite bad turbulence. I do not like flying at the best of times so that was quite testing!

I was flying from Lima to Madrid after doing the inca trail. Call for a doctor on board. The trek doctor on the flight and I both ended up with the passenger. She was just feeling faint as tired and a bit dehydrated.

Call for a doctor on a flight in February but I have handed back my licence to practice and am no longer insured so cannot act as a doctor any more though could help as a "good Samaritan" as with the rest of the general public.

How on earth did his leg get hacked off with an axe?!?! That would take some doing!

Ah well done OP it’s such a lovely feeling when skills come to use. I had similar on a bus, a passenger came on and usually you just tap and go. But the bus driver was having to explain to everyone that came on that the bus as only doing half a journey due to road works. I was sat at the front and the bus driver started talking to a gentleman getting on the bus who was profoundly deaf and only uses BSL. The driver was a bit panicked and I got up and started signing to the man who was very thankful, as was the driver!

I am a doctor and have been on many many flights since qualifying and ALWAYS worry that this will come up. I’m now a paediatric trainee so adults scare me 😂. If it was a child having the emergency I’d be all over it though.

I've had quite a few "is there a doctor on the plane/train" etc moments.
One that was quite funny (the passenger was ok I hasten to add) was when I was on a flight and a lady felt unwell. She was OK actually but she had a heart condition and was very anxious. Anyway, I was assessing the situation and calming her down when a man in a suit literally pushed me aside and very officiously said "You can go now dearie, I'll take over, I'm a doctor". I smiled and said "Oh, so am I, but if you're more suitably qualified..."
Him in a rather sneery tone "Well what are you* *?"
Me "I'm a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine".
Him "Oh...oh...well carry on then...I'll be around if you need any help..."
Turns out he was a retired pathologist who probably hadn't dealt with any kind of emergency in decades but still assumed he'd be better than a woman. I quite enjoyed both looking after the lady and putting the arsehole in his place.

Another was less enjoyable. Train journey to London, just me and my 3 children. Just South of Warrington the dreaded call came. I ignored it for a bit, hoping someone else would respond as I didn't really want to leave the kids, but then my youngest who was about 5 yelled very loudly "My Mummy is a doctor" so I had no choice. To cut a long story short I ended up kneeling on the floor holding open the airway of a unconscious (probably drunk/drugged) smelly man about 3 carriages away without so much as a pair of gloves and having an argument with the train manager. The train was supposed to be non stop to London from Warrington and I insisted we stopped at the next possible station to get him off. Apparently it causes all kinds of trouble to make an unscheduled stop. I pointed out that having a passenger die on the train might cause even more trouble and that no, I wasn't willing to take responsibility for an unconscious man all the way to Euston! I didn't get so much as a thank you from Virgin, though the passengers across the corridor from my kids had kindly bought them some sweets and comics from the train shop when I finally got back.

Not quite a doctor per se but about 8 years ago I went clubbing, went to an off licence next to club before going in to get cigarettes (I’ve given up now!) and spotted the chocolate bars next to the till and grabbed a kinder bueno and shoved it in my bag for later and forgot about it. 3am rolled around, went to McDonald’s and got a coke and was sat on the tube when a man ran up the near empty carriage saying his very drunk girlfriend was diabetic and her sugars had tanked. She was white as a sheet and trembling. I suddenly remembered the bueno in my bag and launched it at him along with my McDonald’s coke and he gave it to her and she started coming round pretty quickly. Was just the strangest thing because I quite literally never have a random chocolate bar lying about on a night out.

Yes! I’m not a doctor but an ICU nurse specialist. When preparing for our wedding many years ago we were at the priests house (in the grounds of the chapel) having tea preparing for the ceremony. Suddenly a knock at the door and the priest disappears for some time. DH and I sit awkwardly wondering what’s going on. The priest comes back in and says he needs to cut the meeting short they have an emergency, then “in fact motherofdragon you’re a nurse aren’t you? Could you help?” turns out a parishioner had found a poor young women who had taken too much drugs near the chapel and brought her to the chapel house for help. Still really never got to the bottom of why they done that instead of phoning an ambulance! The woman was very unwell, I phoned an ambulance of course but she arrested while we waiting, had to do some CPR until the paramedics arrived. She did survive!

I used to be a senior manager in a secure psychiatric hospital and frequently travelled with psychiatrists on trains. Turns out that some people suddenly heal themselves!

More seriously, I was on a plane once where a woman in the row behind me had a stroke. No doctors on board, but I realised what was happening immediately and the Captain was able to divert and have medics meet us at the gate and start thrombolysis immediately on landing.

As a geologist I like this scenario

Dh and I were on a band coach tour abroad in the summer. An elderly (though pretty tough!) band member unwisely got up and was walking down the aisle of the coach when it stopped suddenly and he hurtled and landed badly. It turned out there were no fewer than 5 retired doctors on the coach! They took good care of him, but it turned out he'd broken his shoulder blade!

I was at a restaurant in Portugal with my Portuguese friend whom I had met in Italy. Behind us, there was a German family and I could hear them struggling to identify items on the menu. I speak German too, so we had to do a funny little diciphering chain thing where they would ask me in German, I would ask my friend in Italian, she would read the Portuguese, tell me in Italian, or English if she knew it and I would relay it back in German!

In my field many of us have PhD and are called 'Dr' but only medical Drs used to get a notification page in their passport so in an emergency in the sky they would know who to target. I was at a conference a few years back and someone was talking about this issue: they had put the special page in her passport and she dreaded being approached in an emergency. Her expertise was in a venereal disease but even then she was in no position to heal it!