Narrative:

Cruise altitude; FL370. Flight attendant called cockpit saying customer is having a seizure. I told flight attendant to fill out an inflight medical incident report and pass it under the cockpit door. In the meantime I acars dispatch; notifying them of the incident and that we may be diverting. The report came back; and the pilot monitoring called medlink via arinc. He relayed the info to the respective parties. Pilot monitoring was unable to understand the doctor on the radio. While pilot monitoring was on arinc; flight attendant called back to the cockpit telling us there are two medical professionals on board assisting the customer. Two registered nurses. One rn was a cardiac nurse; and the other was an emergency room nurse. We were told the customer was going in and out of consciousness; had obstructed breathing; and left side of face was drooping. They both recommend immediate medical attention for the customer.I told pilot monitoring the latest information; and we both agreed we need to divert. We came to an agreement with dispatch that we were diverting; and both agreed ZZZ is the desired airport. We did not get concurrence from the medlink doctor because we could not communicate with them due to the poor reception. The pilot monitoring [advised ATC] and we continued to the diversion airport uneventfully. We requested medical attention to meet the aircraft at the gate in ZZZ; and they were there when we arrived.we are required to come to agreement with the medlink doctor to divert due to a medical issue. Since we couldn't communicate effectively in a timely manner; I had to exercise emergency authority in concurrence with dispatch to divert. Not being able to understand the medlink doctor over the frequency is ultimately the issue.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier pilot reported difficulty reaching MedLink in regard a medical emergency onboard. Crew decided to divert based on information received from onboard medical professionals.

Narrative: Cruise altitude; FL370. Flight Attendant called cockpit saying customer is having a seizure. I told Flight Attendant to fill out an inflight medical incident report and pass it under the cockpit door. In the meantime I ACARs Dispatch; notifying them of the incident and that we may be diverting. The report came back; and the Pilot Monitoring called MedLink via ARINC. He relayed the info to the respective parties. Pilot Monitoring was unable to understand the doctor on the radio. While Pilot Monitoring was on ARINC; Flight Attendant called back to the cockpit telling us there are two medical professionals on board assisting the customer. Two Registered Nurses. One RN was a cardiac nurse; and the other was an Emergency Room nurse. We were told the customer was going in and out of consciousness; had obstructed breathing; and left side of face was drooping. They both recommend immediate medical attention for the customer.I told Pilot Monitoring the latest information; and we both agreed we need to divert. We came to an agreement with Dispatch that we were diverting; and both agreed ZZZ is the desired airport. We did not get concurrence from the MedLink doctor because we could not communicate with them due to the poor reception. The Pilot Monitoring [advised ATC] and we continued to the diversion airport uneventfully. We requested medical attention to meet the aircraft at the gate in ZZZ; and they were there when we arrived.We are required to come to agreement with the MedLink doctor to divert due to a medical issue. Since we couldn't communicate effectively in a timely manner; I had to exercise emergency authority in concurrence with Dispatch to divert. Not being able to understand the MedLink doctor over the frequency is ultimately the issue.

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.