Is There Doctor on the Plane?

Neither is staying awake in the wee hours filling in paperwork on behalf of the airline.

As it turned out neither of the two patients on that flight had life-threatening conditions. All the same, would an ethical doctor be absolutely sure of this? Practicing medicine comes with a certain amount of nervous strain.

Yes, that is my point. He knows this is part of his job. He should have taken this in stride instead of making a federal case out of it. I wonder if everytime he's asked to help someone on his time off, he expects someone to make it up to him.

(That's a shame if he can't bill the patient, though. As I said before, if I were the patient, I'd happily pay such a bill.)

(shrugs) Stuff happens. My free time gets preempted by business regularly. It happens to everyone I know. Most people don't whine about it.

I am following along and watching. I like that statement "agree to disagree".

Eva
Out of curiousity, you say your free time gets interrupted regularly.
What do you consider regularly and how much free time? I am just
trying to understand more clearly your point of view on this subject.

TTH said:

You're a card TTH- a real original...


Maybe they don't but I don't think it's unreasonable and lacking in any sort of good will about what you do professionally to maybe expect to get thanked "in kind". By that I mean, he applied his skills and gave of himself in the way that he was able, to the detriment of his holiday and time with his family, and maybe he just thought they could give of themselves in the way that was easiest and least sacrificial for them- by throwing in a complimentary air ticket. What he asked of them would have cost them much less effort, time and expense than what they asked of him.

And he essentially did make the flight more pleasant and bearable for all of their other paying customers, by calming and caring for these people thus enabling the flight attendants to carry on with their duties, instead of having to abandon their own jobs to nurse these patients. He also opened himself to a possible lawsuit if the patient had not been happy with his treatment, or if s/he'd had an allergic reaction to a medicine he gave, or any number of situations, real or imagined, these people may have come up with- you never know who you're dealing with and though you'd expect their reaction to be gratitude-it very well may not have been.

I don't think asking an airline to throw in a ticket is unreasonable- but I don't think it's enforceable to try to make people or businesses be reasonable and express thanks in a reasonable way. I'm not sure why he's pressing the issue- except maybe, after it was all over he was tired and in a bad mood, and felt used and decided to let the airline see what it feels like to feel that you "have" to do something- just because you can and other people/ businesses can't.

aidan
I always enjoy reading your insights (that word just comes to mind when I read your posts).

I don't think the airline needs to give that doctor a free ticket. After reading all the posts and different
thoughts I have changed my view on the situation.

Initially I felt he should be given credit for all his airline miles
and the out of pocket money he spent. Now I feel he should be
compensated with a partial credit, whether it be miles or out of
pocket money.

The reason is because the airline did provide the
transportation, but in doing that, they still should imo provide a
reasonable trip for a paying customer.

When I say reasonable I mean having a seat and what other
flying customers expect- an enjoyable flight. I do realize that in
some cases enjoyable does not apply.

I do public relations work, and my clients frequently call me after hours. Sometimes I have to work nights & weekends to make their media deadlines. Yeah, they should plan ahead, but it happens to all writers & designers. Also, I teach part-time. Students and parents e-mail me with questions about homework and grading all the time. If I waited to answer them until I was "on the clock," they couldn't complete their work and it would throw the entire class off schedule.

My husband manages the automation end of the business for a large electric supply company. He gets called out to help major industries whose automated lines go down at weird hours when their engineers can't fix it. His company gets compensated for his time, but he often doesn't. He's on salary. Again, it's a common thing in his industry.

My sister is a registered nurse. She can't even talk to her next door neighbors without being asked medical questions. Paid for that?! HA! But it's okay. She expects it to happen.

I could go on and on. Everyone I know with any sort of expertise gets called on after hours.

How much of my time? It varies...a lot.

TTH wrote:

That's very nice of you to say. Thank you. I have to say, enjoy your posts too- don't always comment, but I loved that Moody Blues youtube video you posted - Wildest Dreams- that was really entertaining to watch and I love that song. I find your posts refreshing in their straightforwardness- you usualy get right to the heart of the issue without a lot of waffling.

Eva- I'm a teacher too, and I know what you mean about working after hours- but I have to say, I've never had my holiday interrupted to deal with work- and I think that would be a sticking point for me- along with the fact that when I do my job and when you do you job, there's very little chance of any of your or my actions leading to catastrophe or loss of anyone's life. That's not the case when doctors do their job. That fact causes an immense amount of pressure from both outside and within themselves everytime they do their job. So when they have to do it outside their office or the hospital in which their actions are covered and insured- it's very, very stressful.
I think this guy just wanted to have that recognized by the airline. He hadn't planned on going on a working holiday- and that's what the airline ended up forcing him to have.
If the pilot had collapsed and a civilian pilot had taken over the plane and landed it safely- you can't tell me the airline wouldn't have give him/her a free ticket.

Eva and aidan
Thank you for your comments.

I really like the Moody Blues and have seen them in concert. That was nice of you aidan to make that comment
on my posts. It seems that some members see my posts as negative when that is not my intention.

I do wonder if the airline is going to change its stance on the issue.

As far as being inconvenienced in taking a flight, it has happened to me a few times. I handle the problem depending on what it is.
You might be surprised how other people react when you tell them nicely and make a suggestion on how to remedy the problem.
The flight attendants also can be very accommodating if you ask.

I'm still with Eva. I can't count the number of times I have been asked to assist injured animals at various public places, and no one (including me) expected that I would be compensated. Years ago, it simply went with the territory of being called 'Doctor". His attitude explains why physicians no longer command the degree of public respect of a generation or two ago.

I had a bunch of great, though relatively short, vacations in the late sixties, early seventies. Since then my husband and I could only afford driving around our state, albeit a great state. We had no honeymoon, for example, though we made up for it with a one month trip to Italy years later. We had as a starter, a six day trip to Washington, DC messed up with the plane sitting on the tarmac in LA for hours, with us finally getting to an O'Hare area hotel at 2 am with toothpaste kits, both of those provided by the airline, cutting down our timing by a lot, almost/not quite ruining the trip. Naifs, we didn't squawk.

Vacations are relative. If you travel a lot or moderately, no big deal. If it is the only respite within, say, seven years, and fairly short at that, and jet lag affected... you've taken over the guy's vacation with your forms. A toss of a freebie is lightweight to me, especially given possible liability issues for someone showing up.

I remain thinking of it as a cheapo move by the airline.