Medical Assistance

I thought this story needed to be blogged about.... Here goes.

As my family boarded the airplane from DC to Utah we heard an announcement over the speaker. "If there is a physician on board will they please rapidly report to the front of the plane?"  

My heart-rate quickened as I looked in my husband's eyes across the aisle.  He raised his eyebrows at me and ran up to the entryway.  

The first few thoughts that went through my brain were the following:

1-I'm glad he has some trauma experience now after his 6 month stint in Iraq.

2-Hope this doesn't end up in a law suit...

3-If he ends up having to give someone mouth to mouth then I am waiting for a Listerine rinse before I kiss him next.

Then I busied myself with talking to the kids about what Daddy might be doing.  "Checking for a pulse, listening for breathing, doing CPR, etc..."

I worried more and more as the time passed about what might be going on.  The stewardess kept rushing back and forth getting first-aide bags and the defibrillator machine.  Stress!!  

Being the attention lover that I am I was looking forward to the scene that was coming when he arrived and I asked my MD husband for the low-down on the situation.  Actually I knew how much he would hate this moment so I was thinking about how to make us both happy.  

He modestly waved off the clapping of the thankful passengers on his walk back to row 42D.

"What happened?!"

"Nothing."

"What did you do?"

"Pretty much nothing."

"What did the passenger need"

"Air, and blood to her head.  She fainted"

Silence....

"You are going to have to make this story better and longer for me..."

The funniest part of the story for me was the fact that the woman who fainted was both half on and half off of the plane.  That and the fact that the nurses were trying to get her to stand up when she really should be on the ground with her feet elevated.  Sometimes those nurses like to brag about how the doctor gets paid too much when they do all the work.  And sometimes you nurses, just sometimes.... The doctor is paid more because he knows what he is doing.  Sorry if I offend.  But after going through all that training with him (at home/supporting him, etc), I hate when people complain around me about such things.  You're not paid for how much time you spend, you are compensated for your knowledge.  Nuff said?

The other funny/embarrassing part was how the stewardess then kept spoiling all of us.  (Well half of us got ignored until she was told the boys were also part of the good doctor's crew).  She brought us blankets then free headphones and movies.  You have to pay for movies on some flights now!  Then we got extra cookies and free Twix bars, etc.  It just went on and on.  Every time we would try to say "hey this is really more than you need to be doing for us" she would make a big to do and say extra loudly "We just couldn't have done it without him!" "He did just a great service for us!"  "Your husband is wonderful!"  

He absolutely hated it.  I thought it was awesome.