Medical Experts Join Hands With China Eastern Airlines to Build "Protective Walls" of First Aid in Flight

SHANGHAI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wang Ren, an orthopedic doctor, rescued a male passenger with history of palpitation. The passenger suffered from chest tightness, shortness of breath, and dyspnea on board on the flight MU2259 from Guangzhou to Xi'an on May 1.

Surgeon Le Fei has also helped passengers on flights. He helped a girl with acute fever and a French woman who lost consciousness after takeoff on two international flights respectively in 2017.

For both Wang Ren and Le Fei, their other identity is actually "air medical expert." According to the statistics data of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), more than 20 medical cases occur per million flights in the world, some of which even endanger the lives of passengers. "Air medical experts" can assist crew members of China Eastern Airlines to strive for "golden time" for first aid in case of emergency medical treatment.

On June 15, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Volunteer Alliance of Physicians signed a strategic cooperation agreement. Both sides will join hands to continue their cooperation in the key areas such as passenger cabin medical assistance volunteer service, air medical volunteer team development and maintenance, air medical emergency business exchange and volunteer public welfare activities. Since 2017, 844 doctors have voluntarily joined this cooperative project between China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Volunteer Alliance of Physicians.

In recent years, by virtue of medical expert archives, China Eastern Airlines has used airborne equipment to identify and contact medical experts on the flight independently so as to provide medical assistance to passengers without delay. China Eastern Airlines' fleet of nearly 100 interconnected passenger airplanes with WiFi in the air can communicate with ground doctors at any time and carry out emergency treatment under the guidance of experts. Continuous efforts will be made to improve the level of air medical emergency.

In the future, China Eastern Airlines will continue to explore new ways and new topics of on-board passenger rescue, invest more resources and forces to ensure the safety of passengers, better assume the social responsibility as a civil aviation enterprise, and build "protective walls" for the health and safety of passengers on the flight.