“Your program trained you well,” Yale School of Medicine Physician Assistant (PA) Online student Jeffrey Hampton was told, after providing medical assistance on an airplane flight in December. Hampton, who lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho, was flying to JFK Airport for his week-long on-campus immersion at Yale, which takes place at the end of PA Online students’ didactic year.
A couple of hours into the flight, a flight attendant asked, over the intercom, if there was a doctor on board, after a passenger vomited, was very lethargic, had delayed responses, and complained of chest pain. Hampton, who is trained as a CT technologist, said he was “absolutely terrified and slightly shrunk in my seat, praying a doctor or somebody else would stand up.” After no doctors responded and the flight attendant asked whether “anybody medical” was on board, Hampton decided to offer his assistance after a few minutes of watching another passenger, who was a respiratory therapist, appear “as nervous as I felt” interacting with the ill passenger.
Providing assistance
Hampton first asked the ill passenger questions such as whether anything like this had happened before, if she had any known medical issues, and if she was on any current medications or had any known drug allergies. He also asked her if she knew where she was, what day it was, and where she was going. The flight crew had a blood pressure cuff, so Hampton was able to take the ill passenger’s blood pressure. The flight attendants also contacted a doctor on the phone, to whom they could relay the blood pressure readings, and ask if there was anything else they should assess.
The ill passenger's blood pressure initially was extremely low and she appeared to be dehydrated. “Those findings suggested to me,” Hampton says, “that she may have experienced a vasovagal syncope, and I asked if we had IV fluids and oxygen available.” Luckily both resources were available—and a phlebotomist was on board. While Hampton has “decent experience” starting IVs, he was “happy to have another helping hand join the ‘team.’”
Within 15-20 minutes after the IV and oxygen were initiated, the ill passenger’s symptoms greatly improved. She was able to eat crackers and drink water, and completed the rest of the two-plus-hour flight without any issues.
Clinical experience
“It was extremely rewarding to be able to help,” Hampton says, and while he was nervous and “felt completely unqualified to offer any assistance,” he explained that “as I began to interact with the patient, it felt very familiar to clinical experience I had obtained up to this point through my program.”
While Hampton is completing his didactic year, he says he benefited from a unique feature of the Yale PA Online Program: Clinical Experience in Early Didactic (CEED). After the first four months of the didactic year, students spend several hours a week working with a preceptor in a clinical setting. So, from May to November, Hampton had logged 100 clinical hours with a preceptor in primary care. The majority of this experience, Hampton explains, was collecting histories from patients, performing important elements of a physical examination, formulating possible diagnoses with his preceptor, and determining treatments.
“This previous training/experience essentially took over during the airplane situation and I found myself trying to collect all the pertinent information I could and perform a basic assessment of the patient,” says Hampton. Additionally, “Once a provider was on the phone, it also felt very familiar as we relayed our findings to him, again something I had done many times with my preceptor in CEED.”
Reflecting on the experience, Hampton says, it illustrates “how well Yale's program has trained my classmates and me thus far. There is no way I would have been able to do what I did had this happened a year earlier. I am extremely grateful for the Yale PA Online Program and the education it has provided me.” He is especially thankful because based on his personal situation, “I would not have been able to pursue my PA education in a traditional, on-campus program.”
Hampton also appreciates that Delta Airlines sent him a thank you note (and travel credit voucher), for his volunteer medical assistance. The note said, “It was fortunate to have you on board with us, and we are thankful for the assistance you provided. Medical Volunteers like yourself expand our inflight response capabilities and help us in our mission to protect the health and safety of our customers and our crew.”