Passenger doctors in civil airliners--obligations, duties and standards of care

Airlines frequently rely on passenger doctors to assist with in-flight medical emergencies, but the legal implications of such actions vary between nations. While no examples of actions taken against treating physicians for alleged negligence in such emergencies were found, examples of recourse to litigation against individual airlines where the advice of passenger doctors was deemed to be incorrect are cited. Legislation regarding the obligation to treat patients involved in in-flight medical emergencies, the duty and standard of care once treatment, including any history-taking and examination, has commenced, and the requirement for consent to any examination or treatment that may be required is discussed. Particular emphasis is placed on comparing and contrasting the approach of the law in the United Kingdom and United States with the law in countries using Civil Law systems. The paper concludes with a hypothetical example of the kind of difficulties that may practically be encountered and a list of recommendations for physicians attending medical emergencies in civil airliners.