If you're a doctor or medical professional

[annanardini]

Chatting with my mum who does medical care for disabled teens - seizures are common etc. She has just been on holiday and had identified someone having a seizure, called local ambulance and stayed until it came. We were talking about how common it is or not to encounter a medical emergency out of work.

If you’re a doctor/nurse etc has it happened to you? Is it common or do you notice it more because you’re trained to?

On our practice Christmas outing one year before I’d eaten dinner I’d attended one heart attack and one epileptic fit.

I've been a doctor for 17 years, and I would just about need a second hand to count the number of genuine emergencies I've witnessed outside of work, where I've had to intervene more than a member of the general public would. Even then it's mostly not been actual treatment, more keeping someone safe and knowing what's happening/who to call. Several were my own family (DS1 broke his leg in front of me, DH's elderly grandpa lost consciousness at the dinner table) or near home (parents' neighbour had a stroke) so not strangers or in a public place.

I've still never had the "is there a doctor on board?" call on a plane, though I have a few friends/colleagues who've had quite dramatic ones!

When I was in 6th form, the speaker at our prize giving day had a cardiac arrest in the middle of his speech! But I was obviously still at school at the time and not qualified beyond my Guides First Aid badge, so I wouldn't count that. Fortunately there were several doctors in the audience as parents, and amazingly he survived.

I answered "Is there a doctor on board" calls twice within a few weeks once, one on a train and one on a plane, but those were the only times in 35 years!
I have stopped at a few accidents if the emergency services are not already there. If there is an ambulance already on the scene I generally wouldn't because paramedics are the best people to deal with out of hospital care and a fish out of water hospital doctor getting in their way is probably not helpful! On occasions when I have arrived before them (I once had a car crash happen right in front of me so was first on scene) the paramedics and police have taken my details, thanked me and sent me on my way once they have made their own assessment. I guess if there were multiple casualties and more people were needed it would be different but I have never been in that situation.

I thinks it's just reporting bias and being more aware of your surroundings.

For example, I was taxing up a runway talking to the woman in the seat next to me years ago when she had an obvious stroke - droopy mouth, aphasia etc. pulled the emergency stop to stop the plane and called the ambulance while the cabin crew tried to give her some more privacy because I had a lot of her details from our earlier conversation. I was only involved because I was right there when it happened and I'm not medical. IE a lot of factors had to line up for me to be aware or involved.

On another flight a woman because very dizzy with low sats a few rows forward. DH, who is a doctor, saw cabin crew struggling with the oxygen tank and intervened where I would have assumed they were doing everything already and not to pry. He sorted her out until we landed. He recognised far more help was needed where I didn't and his threshold for getting involved was lower than mine because he knew he could be useful and I knew I would absolutely not be, so although I've been on two flights with emergency situations and he's only been in one, had he not been medically trained I wouldn't have really been aware of the second and so it feels like he sees these scenarios more often than I do, but that is just our reporting biases.

I have mamaged a head injury at DS's football match and delivered a baby on the pavement once. A vomiting child on an aeroplane ( not that you can do much) and checking a few drunks were breathing...

not sure it's any more likely to happen to us than it is anyone else is it? And that's exactly why everyone should be able to do first aid. We're not much more use than anyone else without kit/drugs. Only had to properly intervene once outside work in over 20 yrs....spent 10 mins batting flies off someone's tibia before proper help arrived.

I think healthcare workers may just be more likely to notice emergencies because of their training, rather than actually experiencing them more often than others. They’re more confident in recognising what’s serious and stepping in when needed, while others might hesitate. Either way, it highlights how important basic first aid knowledge is, since emergencies can happen anywhere.

When my brother had just qualified he was on a flight and the message ‘is there a doctor on board’ came over then tannoy … he froze for a second, big gulp, then was about to get up when another doctor piped up lol 😂 … he did go up too and help out
also a my wedding, we had multiple doctors (my family and DH family and family friends). Someone managed to bang their head and fell unconscious, laughingly it was near the end so almost all of them were pretty drunk 😵🤣 … my brother (unusually!) was driving so sober so again he took control and called an ambulance .. he was fine by the way!

Twice in 30 years and I was pretty useless on both occasions.

Not much you can do without equipment apart from hold the person's hand.

Everyone should learn basic first aid. My ds died because his friend didn't know first aid and didn,t call an ambulance until it was too late.
Every year I post on the "going to university threads" to suggest a first aid course for teens.
I get some sarcastic responses but some people take it on board.

whenever it was asked, I was with DH so he went as more of an acute medicine person than I am
He has

1. resuscitated someone from an MI at a football match and went in ambulance with him to hand him over to his friend to go straight to theatre
2. 1 x faint in opticians
3. 2 x on a plane - trivial that I can’t recall
4. an elderly lady collapsed at a bus stop. He resuscitated her until the ambulance arrived and then when he had the kit, he put in a central line at the bus stop. The ambulance personnel were surprised but it was his area of expertise
5. Advised on a collapse on the beach in Spain. It was something like a faint but the Spanish coastguard were v proud of their blood pressure machine and kept using it!

I’m a mental health Senior Prac, and happened upon someone about to end their life once. I just happened to be the only person passing. I dashed to try to grab them but I was too late. What I saw still haunts me, and shook my faith in my professional abilities, but I carry on regardless.

Probably once or twice a year excluding flights - I go to a few funerals and memorials and emotion can lead to all sorts of emergencies.

@endofthelinefinallyso incredibly sorry to hear that. Totally agree with you about first aid.

Becoming a lifeguard is a good way for teens to learn about first aid. I used to to be a lifeguard. I know how to do CPR, and how to do an abdominal thrust (when someone is choking, also how to put bandages on properly. I’ve dealt with faints a couple of times (you raise the person’s legs), I also rescued a child in a hotel pool (I was a guest on the hotel) who was drowning. i have had to bandage myself a few times but luckily nothing more than that outside of work

I took a medical secretary Association of Medical Secretaries diploma training course ( a 2-year college course that could, in a very few places, be done in one year if you were an SRN or had a relevant science A level). Sadly, it no longer exists (nor does the Association of Medical Secretaries) but it used to be the gold standard qualification that many employing bodies insisted on when advertising jobs.. The
online course now available bears absolutely no resemblance to that.or membership of our then professional body hence the dwindling number of properly trained med secs now. One of the subjects covered was emergency first aid (by an ex-nursing sister). Rule no 1, should you witness an RTA or someone collapsing in the street etc, was to NOT rush over but pause to see if a boy scout, St John's Ambulance person etc steps forward first (because they usually do and they will do a much better job than others). I later had confirmation of this by some of the medical staff I worked with and a friend who is a nursing sister (who had had to resuscitate one or two people in the street).

Occasionally. Once at an afternoon party when someone fell and had the most enormous gash on their head.. I had had a couple glasses wine.
I came across a head on in a rural road with several injuries.. fortunately emergency bag in my car.
I dread in happening on a plane!

You came across a head on the road?! I hope it was attached to something!
And I actually found my "is there a doctor on board" call on a plane less stressful than on the train. On the plane they did actually have quite a bit of kit and the crew were helpful. On the train there was nothing and I had to argue with the Train Manager about making an unscheduled stop for "just a drunk". Well yes, the guy probably was just drunk, but he was drunk enough to be unable to maintain his own airway, and no, I was not willing to kneel on the vomity floor with my hand under his chin from just south of Crewe to Euston! I got the impression that the air crew would have been much more open to making an emergency landing should I have recommended it (I didn't) than the then Virgin train staff were about adding 10 mins to the journey time by stopping at an extra station.

My friend (aged 79) had a heart attack on a train last year and thankfully a cardiac nurse was sitting close by and helped out until the train could get back to the station for a waiting ambulance!

The op states they “came across a head on, in the road”. ie: a head-on road traffic collision.
The occupants were likely horribly injured. What the OP came upon and had the misfortune to have to deal with is probs not that funny to make a comedy joke about.

Apologies. I misread and didn't understand what the PP meant, no ill intended. I'm actually retired due to being disabled thanks to injuries sustained in an RTC so not prone to making jokes about them.

I’m not a medic but had to help my friend survive going into epileptic status twice when I was with her; once at an outdoor concert that we’d been looking forward to and second time on an Emirates plane flying over some very unfriendly countries. I do have first aid training and know how to administer her rescue drugs but it’s still a massive shock. There were two nurses sitting nearby on the plane but the most useful person was a vet in the row behind!