July 27, 2007
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A romantic holiday -- Day 9 (29/6/2007), finale
I left the group and returned to Hong Kong early for work. I really wanted to stay for a few more days! I have not yet visited the catacombs of St. martyrs, and also the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. C'est la vie!
Everything went peacefully. I arrived to airport 3 hours before the departure. It was the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul and I was lucky enough to catch the mass at the chapel of airport.
The plane take off uneventfully. It was a Friday. I was reading and praying the Rosary and planned to adjust the jet lag by having a nap later. The flight attendents came out and they were starting to distribute our lunch.
'BANG!'
It was then followed by a loud fearful cry of a lady. We then saw one of the flight attendents ran towards our direction in tears. There was some sound of fight and cry at the back of the plane.
'A terriorist attack?' I started to feel a bit frightened as it appeared rather unusual. Everyone was wondering what had happened.
'Your attention please. We are having a problem here. We would like ask any medical doctor on flight for help.' That was the announcement after a few minutes.
'Someone is wounded.' I was thinking of the sound of glass breaking and wondered if someone was hurt. But it didn't appear to be a terriorist attack anyway.
I stepped out and rushed to the back of plane. There was a strong Korean being retrained by his fellows. He looked rather disturbed as he cried and was quite violent.
After consulting the flight attendents and other passengers, we (there were two Australian doctors and one Australian psychologist on flight too) finally sorted out what had happened. This man visited Rome and he was nearly robbed by the pickpockets. He remained rather upset and started to have hallucinations in the recent few days. He mentioned that he saw someone shooting him on the plane and so he grabbed a bottle of wine and tried to fight back. He did not have any obvious head injury in the past week nor did he took any drugs for health or leisure.
'Where are we now?' I asked one of the flight attendent.
'Somewhere above Italy.' He replied.
So we had a patient with acute psychosis on flight. The problem was whether it was safe to keep him there for another 10 hours before we arrived to Hong Kong.
'Any medication on flight?' I asked.
'We only have panadol and something basic, but you can try the doctor's kit' Another attendent told me.
While they were looking for the kit, we finally managed to restrain him with plastic bondages, with the help a few Italians (They looked much stronger then the one I met during arrival!). However the man still yelled and resisted and at one point he nearly broke the bondage by himself.
'Perhaps we should drop him back in Rome before continuing the flight.' We discussed that issue and it seemed quite hopeless unless we had the medicine to sedate him.
The flight attendents finally passed a doctor's kit to us. It looked complicated. Everything were packed in three layers and you could easily be confused. We finally spotted a vial labelled 'Haloperidol' (a kind of strong neuroleptic / tranquilizer)
'That's the one we need!' I exclaimed.
But then, another problem came. We were not allowed to use it before given permission from the provider of the kit (the company was at the United States). The pilots were making the request to the company immediately after knowing we were preparing to use the drugs.
It was quite a long and fruitless communication. Eventually we were asked to use another drug first (Dormicum) but we all knew that was not supposed to work on a rather violent and already disturbed strong gentleman.
We gave him the injection, and waited. Gave him another shot, it was not working.
So finally we were allowed to use Haloperidol and it worked partially. The man was very tired and fell into a deep sleep afterwards.
'Do you have oxygen on flight?' I asked the flight attendents.
'Yes. Do you need that now?' She replied.
'No. Just get it ready.' I told her.
I really wanted to sleep too. But we have given him too much sedation and it was rather dangerous to keep him in deep sedation without monitors. Luckily we still have oxygen and I noticed there were equipments for intubation in case he fell into respiratory arrest. But it remained for us to monitor him clinically as there was no pulse oxymeter on flight.
So the flight continued as scheduled.
It was nearly 3 hours when I returned to my seat. I took my late lunch and started to ponder:
'My Lord, is that what You want me to do?
I spent nights and days dwelling in this art of mind and hands, preparing the moments of Your needs.
Eventually, it was not the surgery or medicine which I prepared most that matters; It was psychiatry, something I have almost forgotten.
But I am grateful for what You asked me to do.
It was not a case of acute epiglottitis, You know I almost failed my paediatrics.
It was neither threatened miscarriage. I discovered that I knew nothing about gynaecology in recent times.
Even it was acute psychosis, it was something in my limits.
Since You are my Lord, and You know that I love You. You will never put me into quests I can't stand!'
This was taken before the flight landed to Hong Kong. Dr. Jones is a transplant surgeon working in Australia. He told me that his last call-on-flight was something like 30 years ago. But it was much more nasty then what we had. It was a case of heart failure.
These two beautiful ladies were just part of the crew who offered so much help in the time of need. The crew was kind enough to offer me a bottle of fine wine and a box of chocolates as gift. This flight was obviously not my smoothest one but I enjoyed it most, especially the services offered even in the difficult moments. I am so proud of Cathay Pacific, the airline of our city. Hong Kong is definitely the best!
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