2015年CRI Better Management Urged for Airlines

The patient, a journalist from northeastern Liaoning Province, suddenly fell ill on a flight from Shenyang to Beijing on November 9.

"My stomach started to ache less than 10 minutes after we took off. It developed quickly and I realized I had to call an ambulance. Around 40 minutes later, the painfulness had made me nearly unable to move."

But it was just the start of what the patient had to suffer.

After landing at Beijing Capital Airport, the man had to spend another 50 minutes waiting for the cabin door to be opened.

And what further surprised him was that neither the flight crew nor the ambulance workers were willing to carry him off the plane, and he had to climb down to the ambulance by himself despite the intense pain.

"It's hard to believe. It seemed that they only focused on arguing who should do the work while I had been forgotten. Finally, I told them I would get off the plane by myself. I could only move crouching 1 like an ape. Nobody gave me help, they were maybe afraid of being held responsible if I got worse during that process."

The man was finally diagnosed with acute intestinal 2 obstruction 3 and underwent emergency surgery to cut out part of his intestine 4.

He then tweeted his experience on Weibo and received millions of views.

Both China Southern and the airport hospital that sent the ambulance have apologised, but neither has accepted that carrying the patient was part of their work.

You Zhibin from the Chinese Academy of Governance says the medical staff would have been the best people to do it.

"It should be the duty of the ambulance staff to carry the patient, according to the national guidelines on pre-hospital therapy that was issued in February last year. They would have had better medical knowledge than the air crew."

But some industry insiders argue it's hard to tell who should have been responsible since there is no guideline in the industry for handling such a case.

However, Peng Zongchao with Tsinghua University suggested humanity outweighs 5 anything else in such a situation.

"The lack of a detailed 6 code of conduct for industry employees leaves room for them to argue. But facing a patient in need of urgent help, they should consider more how to lend a hand than how to avoid possible responsibility."

An internal investigation 7 by China Southern has found the aircraft suffered a malfunction 8 on its brake system after landing, so the air crew had to wait for a tow truck to take it to the apron 9, as well as for an order from air controllers before opening the cabin door.

Wang Yanan, editor in chief with Aerospace 10 Knowledge magazine, is urging the airlines and airport to do more to improve procedures for dealing 11 with unexpected emergencies like this.

"Both the airline and the airport have their own emergency plans. But both should reflect on whether the plans were well implemented 12 in this case and whether they need improvements. It's also necessary for them to better prepare for unexpected situations such as how to help a passenger outside the apron."

China Southern Airlines has said it will negotiate with the medical workers at the airport to improve the process of handing over patients.

For CRI, I'm Yu Yang.