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?"

I'm a nurse and have been called upon several times, the most memorable being when I was given my meal for free in a restaurant after intervening when another diner was choking. My food, which I was mid way through eating when she started choking, was cold by the time I got back to it but she was fine so it was all good

i was travelling to New York when they asked if there was a doctor on the plane. I was travelling with one so I poked her awake and explained. She swore and suggested we give it two mins and the guy in front of us got up and volunteered so she went back to sleep!

Dh is a Dr and we had the "Is there a Dr on the plane?" Announcement. Dh was fast asleep so I had to wake him up! A lady was having chest pains, but dh quickly worked out it was a panic attack, the crew gave him the emergency drugs box - he was very impressed by what they had in there!

Not quite the same, but I often joke to my DH that I must have the word "MAP" imprinted on my forehead as, for some unknown reason, I always get stopped by people to ask for directions.

More often than not I'm able to help, but I remember turning up in a town to work for a day, never having been there before and the instant I got out my car someone asked me where the library was.

I must have a nice helpful looking face!

We had an actual dr on the plane incident, except the cabin crew came up to us to request assistance based on the passenger manifest, my ex was indeed a "dr" but not of medicine, he quickly pointed out that i would be more use as if just done a 4 day first aid at work course

Thankfully behind us was an a&e nurse who went off with the cabin crew, no early landing so I presume all was fine

That reminds me - I did a first aid course and the following week came across a drunk woman who'd got lost and fallen over. DH had to go and get some help (we were in a hotel at the time, but the lady couldn't remember her room number).

While he was gone I did the first aid checks to make sure she'd not hurt herself too badly and determined she just had some scrapes and bruises but was just too drunk to stand.

Thankfully the hotel staff took over and we carried on our evening!

I used to book my business travel via a university travel agent and they were very clear about academics not booking as 'Dr'!

I am an engineer - and when it comes to cars, I am not bad.... I can often find the right and simple solution... stopped to help a guy with a flat tyre - he couldn't work out how to fit the wheel brace to the wheel nuts - they had plastic covers on.. he was quite grateful.. neighbours car wouldn't start, three men standing around kicking the tyres, suggesting all sorts of reasons why... I replaced the battery - off she went!

I love threads like these! I get a bit emotional too.

Yep, lots of Docs don’t list as such for obvious reasons and the airlines can be a bit wary of taking volunteers at face value.

TBH one of the first ports of call if there’s an inflight medical emergency is a satphone call to a A&E /E&R physician at whichever medical service provider the airline uses…

FiL was a firefighter. One day he was walking down the street (off duty) and saw a care home on fire, ran in and rescued a sleeping lady from her room.

Went to a Lichtenstein exhibition, on the train there I was reading a book about his work. In the gallery a woman and her daughter next to me were wondering how he’d achieved a certain effect - I piped up “well actually…..” as I’d just read it on the way there.

i also had a landscape photo in a local exhibition, someone next to me was speculating as to where it was taken so I confirmed it was where he’d thought and said it was my photo - he said it was very good.😊

These are great
Loving the actual Doctors on a plane but was also hoping for ordinary people who found themselves in situations where unusual knowledge or skills was just the thing that was needed.

Dh is a doctor and we've had several of the "is there a doctor on the plane" things over the years. Mostly fine. One was a guy who had managed to shove his ear pod deep into his ear and panicked. Dh borrowed a tweezers from the steward and got it out. He said the announcement should have been "Is there a mother on the plane"

He also intervened in a restaurant where a bystander was hell-bent on doing a heimlich on a woman who had actually had a seizure.

But my own sort of on point story was I was sitting at a concert in an old church years ago and started chatting to the guy next to me. We were discussing the architecture of the church and in the course of the conversation I said "I was listening to an architect on the radio yesterday who made a very interesting point about this ..." and he went pink and said "that was me" I made his day.

That reminds me of something.

I'm not a medic but have a family member who is diabetic. This was the days before people had CGMs.

I was in the pub there was a group at the next table and one of the group appeared to be VERY drunk, they got up to manhandle her out and take her home. As they went to leave a few things rang alarm bells with me, nothing terribly obvious but I was concerned enough that when she staggered and nearly fell I went over and sat her down and spoke to her. Her friends didn't know she was diabetic but she was just about able to confirm she was diabetic, and it became increasingly clear she was having a hypo so I arranged for her to be given something sugary. She was taken to A&E to be checked but didn't need an ambulance.

Had she been taken home and put to bed without anyone realising she could have died.

I have one where someone just happened to be there when I needed them!

My pre teen turned my phone language to Portuguese because she was furious with me for...something. I can't remember what (probably something ridiculous!)

I didn't realise until I was at the train station and was trying to check the train arrival time. Said out loud 'What the fuck? Is this Portuguese?'

Very nice Portuguese lady on the platform took my phone from me and turned it back to English and taught me how to say 'you're grounded until you're 100' in Portuguese 😁

On a fairly remote Greek island my husband and I were woken by banging on our door. Husband opened it, and a very emotional Greek man, clearly in the grip of some severe emotion, was shouting. Having a smattering of Greek, the only word I could make our was "daughter". I thought he was under the impression his daughter was in our room with my husband (quite a serious situation in the Greece of the early 80s). I showed my face he departed, but we heard him banging on the door of the room next door.

Anyway, turns out that he knew one of the three couples visiting from the UK was a nurse. His daughter was ill and he couldn't find the local doctor. He did find the nurse, his daughter was ok, and we and the other couple (one of whom was a nurse) were taken for a fantastic meal by the doctor as an unneeded apology for being disturbed.

Mother and father on a long haul flight. Mum collapsed, "Is there a doctor on the plane?". Suspected heart attack. Plane made unscheduled stop in Athens and Mum taken to hospital. Dad taken shopping for underpants by British Consulate as their luggage had carried on home. They were there for over a week and then brought home with a doctor in attendance. Eye wateringly expensive. Thank heavens for good travel insurance!

Son in second year at University borrowed our car and set off to drive from where we lived in Eastern France, back to the UK. Middle of France the cover under the engine fell off and started dragging along the autoroute. He pulled into a French service station and approached a group of Belgian truckers. Son speaks very little French and NO Flemish so.... After quite a bit of sign language, one of the truckers produced some zip ties and tied the cover up. All was well until we came over to England to collect our car and husband decided to take a look and then tie it back up with string. It had been perfectly OK for 3 months. "Don't do it" we said, "wait 'til we get home." He insisted and it came adrift again before we even got to the ferry. Poor husband got very little sympathy as he crawled under the car on a very wet December day....

Being a nurse on a plane got me some very nice long haul first class tickets a couple of years ago, thank you to the crew that day, apparently they requested them for me.

A friend of mine had a doctor on the plane incident, a lady had angina/collapse. The man in the seat next to the lady refused to move so friend was sat on the floor with her for hours, equipment on board flight was woeful, captain refused to land anywhere earlier. The lady left the plane alive but my friend had spent the majority of a long haul flight nursing her… she complained to the airline about their lack of emergency equipment and the fact she had a stressful and exhausting flight… they sent her a £25 voucher.

Patiently waiting in the queue at the Post Office. One member of staff and about 100 customers (obvious exaggeration but felt like it!!). I was about 7th in line and noticed there was a heated conversation between customer #1 & the member of staff, so I started listening. The customer wanted to send something to Ireland but couldn't tell the staff member if it was going to Southern or Northern Ireland. It was obvious that the member of staff had no idea either when she pretty much screamed at the customer "I know it's going to Shannon, I just need to know if it's going to the bloody South bit or the bloody North bit". The customer was frantically looking at the queue and everyone was avoiding eye contact. I was able to step in & confidently assure them it was going to Southern Ireland. That was my moment!! 😂

One of my favourite moments on a plane was when they called for a doctor twice and after a while a passenger across the aisle hopped up and announced loudly ‘I am a physiotherapist!’ I just imagined him diagnosing a strained knee or something. (The ill passenger was ok in the end).

Years of education and the most useful emergency assistance I seem to be able to offer is being the person who has jump
leads in their car. I still don't dare actually use them in case I electrocute myself, just proudly hand them over

Oh and there was the great moment when we had a long wait for a ferry and needed to freshen up after a long drive so I went into a shop and proudly used my GCSE French to ask "Ou est la piscine s'il vous plait?". And received some fabulously detailed directions, which I unfortunately didn't understand a word of

Rather like the PP with Shannon (wasn't that the international airport for Dublin years ago?), I stepped up when the post office woman said the Falklands were near Shetland. ( DH was in the Falklands war and an uncle did the Falklands Islands Dependency survey in the 1950s, before exploring Antarctica).