BehindTheMedspeak: Doctors on a Plane, Episode 2 — 'Need a doctor in the air? Fly with one'

Michelle Higgins's above-headlined "Practical Traveler" column in the March 16, 2008 New York Times Travel section was chock full of juicy tidbits, such as:

• 17,084 in-flight calls for medical emergencies were received last year by MedAire, a Phoenix company that provides cabin crews with real-time medical advice.

• "... 649 planes were diverted for medical reasons and 97 people died onboard"... (my italics).

• "... flight crews aren't required to know much more than where the medical equipment is kept."

• "In the event that a medical crisis strikes miles up in the sky, passengers are generally at the mercy of who happens to be onboard."

• "Last year, a first-class passenger on a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London woke up to find himself sitting near a corpse. The airline later said that an elderly woman from the economy section had died after takeoff, and the body was moved to first class, where there was more space for family members of the deceased to grieve with more privacy."

• "... at least one airline — Singapore — actually has a makeshift morgue on its Airbus 340-500s, which fly its longest routes.... Each aircraft has a compartment where a corpse could be stored, if necessary."
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Episode 1, which appeared on April 9, 2008, may be found right here.