Narrative:

About 30 minutes after departure; I was notified by the flight attendants (flight attendant) that they had a ill woman onboard; and would get back to me shortly with addition information. The first officer (first officer) and myself started to prepare for a possible diversion and checked arinc frequencies in case the cabin phone did not work. Fas got medlink on the phone for awhile. Most of the passenger information was given to medlink before the cabin phone connection quit. Flight attendant called the flight deck and filled us in about the passenger. The passenger; in her late 80's; may have been having a heart attack. Apparently; she is in some form of heart failure. It was later discovered that she was on five different types of medication; of which she had not taking any that morning. I spoke directly with an er tech that was helping the fas. The passenger was in bad shape. She was not responsive; pulse was 30; and they couldn't get a blood pressure reading. Her skin was pale and pasty. I was able to contact medlink through arinc for a short period of time. I passed on additional information to the medlink doctor before I lost the arinc connection. I was unable to reconnect with medlink after that point; on any frequency. I checked again with the cabin crew. The passenger was a little better. They had her on oxygen and were able to get some of her medications into her. She still didn't look good but her eyes were open and her pulse was 50. At that point we were getting close to ZZZ. Not knowing the passengers true condition; and without the input of medlink; we [advised ATC of] a medical emergency to expedite our arrival into ZZZ. We did our best to communicate to the dispatcher through ACARS after losing the arinc connection. We had paramedics waiting at the gate. Passenger was removed without incident and taken to the local er.passengers with serious medical problems should not be allowed to fly. Also; it would be great if the cabin phone worked 100% of the time.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 Captain reported that an elderly lady was very ill so they advised ATC of a medical emergency and flew directly to their destination.

Narrative: About 30 minutes after departure; I was notified by the Flight Attendants (FA) that they had a ill woman onboard; and would get back to me shortly with addition information. The First Officer (FO) and myself started to prepare for a possible diversion and checked ARINC frequencies in case the cabin phone did not work. FAs got Medlink on the phone for awhile. Most of the passenger information was given to Medlink before the cabin phone connection quit. FA called the flight deck and filled us in about the passenger. The passenger; in her late 80's; may have been having a heart attack. Apparently; she is in some form of heart failure. It was later discovered that she was on five different types of medication; of which she had not taking any that morning. I spoke directly with an ER tech that was helping the FAs. The passenger was in bad shape. She was not responsive; pulse was 30; and they couldn't get a blood pressure reading. Her skin was pale and pasty. I was able to contact Medlink through ARINC for a short period of time. I passed on additional information to the Medlink doctor before I lost the ARINC connection. I was unable to reconnect with Medlink after that point; on any frequency. I checked again with the cabin crew. The passenger was a little better. They had her on oxygen and were able to get some of her medications into her. She still didn't look good but her eyes were open and her pulse was 50. At that point we were getting close to ZZZ. Not knowing the passengers true condition; and without the input of Medlink; we [advised ATC of] a Medical Emergency to expedite our arrival into ZZZ. We did our best to communicate to the dispatcher through ACARS after losing the ARINC connection. We had paramedics waiting at the gate. Passenger was removed without incident and taken to the local ER.Passengers with serious medical problems should not be allowed to fly. Also; it would be great if the cabin phone worked 100% of the time.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.