Inflight Medical Care
Every airline in the world has some capability to render emergency
medical care inflight. All have medical kits of varying sophistication and flight
attendants with varying training who should b
e capable of rendering first
-
aid and
basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Policy regarding contents of the
medical kit
, training of the crew,
and treatment
of passengers is at the discretion
of each nation and its airline(s). U.S. commercial carriers
operating under
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations carry a required first
-
aid kit and
a medical kit (with a small number of medications). On international flights, an
expanded medical kit may be available with additional
medications. It can
not be
overemphasized that these medical kits are only for emergency use and not for
routine medical care