<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1500848, December 2017

Dispatcher reported issues with the company's airborne medical communications system.

Attributes
ACN	1500848
Time
Date	201712
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Dispatcher
Qualification	Dispatch Dispatcher
Events
Anomaly	Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

I was contacted due to a sick passenger on board who fainted and hit his head on the floor and became unconscious. I attempted to contact the physician on call at med link and was told to standby for the doctor. While being placed on hold the cell connection dropped and the call was lost. I was still on hold for the doctor when the captain called back. I was still on hold for the doctor and was finally able to establish a conference call with myself; medlink assistant and the captain. The cell connection was again dropped while still remaining on hold for the physician to join into the conference call. The cell connection again faded and disconnected while awaiting the physician on call only this time I was able to give the captain a VHF frequency to contact me on in case we became disconnected again. The captain called me back through the arinc VHF frequency and a stable connection was finally established. All three parties were still on hold for the physician on call to come into the conference call during a span of time that I estimate to be seven to eight minutes.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Dispatcher reported issues with the Company's airborne medical communications system.

Narrative: I was contacted due to a sick passenger on board who fainted and hit his head on the floor and became unconscious. I attempted to contact the physician on call at Med link and was told to standby for the doctor. While being placed on hold the cell connection dropped and the call was lost. I was still on hold for the doctor when the Captain called back. I was still on hold for the doctor and was finally able to establish a conference call with myself; Medlink assistant and the Captain. The cell connection was again dropped while still remaining on hold for the physician to join into the conference call. The cell connection again faded and disconnected while awaiting the Physician on call only this time I was able to give the captain a VHF frequency to contact me on in case we became disconnected again. The Captain called me back through the ARINC VHF frequency and a stable connection was finally established. All three parties were still on hold for the physician on call to come into the conference call during a span of time that I estimate to be seven to eight minutes.

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.