Doctor reveals how his quick diagnosis averted an emergency landing
Case report: Passenger appeared to have a stroke mid-flight, however a blocked eustachian tube was diagnosed, recounts Dr Alan Hunter
A canny mid-air diagnosis by a ‘doctor on board’ averted an emergency landing and reassured a young man he’d not had a stroke on a passenger flight.
The man’s unilateral facial paralysis did appear to be caused by a stroke, but was actually the result of increased middle ear pressure affecting his cranial nerves, said Dr Alan Hunter, of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, the US.
He wrote a case report about the incident to “alert clinicians to a condition that can mimic acute stroke, but does not require an unplanned aircraft landing”.
Dr Hunter had responded to a flight attendant’s request for medical help for a passenger who was “probably having a stroke” as the aircraft reached cruising altitude.
