While trip medical support provider MedAire has long been an exhibitor at NBAA’s shows, NBAA is also a client, and at one of its recent international shows, a staff member became ill, requiring the organization to call upon MedAire’s services. Immediately, the company’s global response center (GRC) moved into action and assessed the situation, arranging for a pre-vetted doctor to visit the patient in their hotel room. After the diagnosis, the GRC handled all the logistics and payment, and had the appropriate medications delivered. Throughout the event, it maintained continuous contact with the staff member.

Through its activities, NBAA is dedicated to supporting the business aviation industry around the world, but these efforts "must account for the realities of human performance and safety, and include a support system for our team members when they are sick, injured, or otherwise in need of specialized assistance,” said Doug Carr, the association’s vice president for regulatory and international affairs. “MedAire’s trusted, global medical expertise will provide our team access to vetted services wherever they are, whether in locations across the country or in places across the globe.”

This week at NBAA 2018, MedAire (Booth 470) is offering a passport challenge for attendees to win prizes. It also has brought a roster of its subject experts to discuss how to deal the medical challenges in international operations similar to those experienced the NBAA staff member, in-flight medical emergencies, risks and threats to civil aviation, and the company’s aviation medical kits.

Those kits are designed to contain the essential medications needed to respond to an in-flight emergency, and in cases of drug shortages the company keeps tabs on how that will affect its supply. Each year the company refurbishes more than 300,000 of the kits globally and maintains relationships with drug manufacturers and medical equipment suppliers to keep those kits stocked with the most appropriate medicines and tools to help in remote medical situations.

With more children flying on private flights, the company suggests that adults traveling with them should take a basic first aid or CPR course, such as those provided in MedAire’s management of in-flight illness and injury training program, before traveling. According to the company, 20 percent of the 300 in-flight calls a day to the MedLink emergency response center involve a child under 12 years old. The most common symptoms include fever, high-fever-related seizures in very young children, vomiting, and allergic reactions.