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Emergency Medical Kits are essential to saving airline passengers

In a 255-character tweet in June of last year, a surgical oncologist who had just assisted in a medical emergency on a plane pleaded with an airline to update its medical kits.To get more news about combat gause, you can visit rusuntacmed.com official website.

“I just assisted in a medical emergency in the air,” the doctor tweeted. “Your medical kits need a glucometer, epi pen (sic), and automatic blood pressure cuffs - it’s impossible to hear with a disposable stethoscope in the air. Please improve this for passenger safety!”

Her tweet went viral, with more than 54,000 retweets and 470,000 likes in the months that followed.

Dozens of doctors echoed her concerns in comments, where they shared personal stories of assisting with an in-flight emergency with a sometimes-limited medical kit.Some recalled challenges using disposable stethoscopes and manual blood pressure cuffs, while others urged airlines to add more life-saving items into their kits.

In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration updated its 1986 rule requiring airlines to place an automated external defibrillator (AED) and update a kit containing basic medical supplies that’s required on all planes with at least one flight attendant and a maximum capacity of more than 7,500 pounds.

In that guidance, the FAA listed 25 life-saving items emergency medical kits, “commonly called EMKs,” are required to have. Among other things, the list includes a stethoscope, aspirin, a blood pressure cuff, and epinephrine to treat allergic reactions. Notably, the rule does not require the kits to contain an EpiPen, an auto-injectable device that delivers epinephrine.

While leaving the first aid kits the same, the FAA in 2019 did update its guidance on items that are needed or recommended during the flight attendant’s safety demonstration before each flight, like making flight attendants stand near exits without disrupting passengers from watching video demonstrations.

While the FAA does not allow airlines to leave out any of the 25 items required for the EMK, they do have the option to add other life-saving items. Some have opted to add a pulse oximeter and the overdose reversal drug Narcan.

But an InvestigateTV analysis of doctors’ experiences with the EMKs found contents vary widely, oftentimes leaving doctors and other medical professionals with limited or outdated equipment.