Would you do CPR on a complete stranger?

If your answer is anything but YES, I respectfully ask you to reconsider your career aspiration…

When you’re 35,000ft skyward and wearing that uniform, you are the legal first responder in medical emergencies.

A visualisation technique I often use with trainees is ‘picture yourself walking down the aircraft cabin, delivering a glass of water to your passenger at 20A when you hear a passenger screaming out to get your attention. You look behind and notice a passenger collapsed on the floor in the middle of the cabin, panic from surrounding passengers begins. What would YOU do?’

Initially, crew try to give me the answer they think I’m looking for and neglect to actually put themselves in that situation. But the really good stuff comes when crew live out the visualisation in their minds. Some crew sink, some crew swim. Sometimes the only way we really know what we would do in a situation like this is when it actually plays out onboard. But the one thing we CAN do is prepare.

If you answered ‘I’d approach the collapsed passenger, commence my DRSABCD without hesitation,’ this would have been the best response.

If the mere thought of this situation makes you want to run in the opposite direction, or hope that another crew or passenger take charge instead, this may not be the job for you.

Bonus points if you’ve completed your CPR and First Aid certificates and keep them valid :)