Narrative:

After reaching our cruise altitude we received a call from the first flight attendant stating they had a passenger in the back that was at some point unconscious and they had an emt on board evaluating their condition. They then called back again and stated the emt felt the passenger was in or approaching cardiac arrest and they would be using the aed. At this point I asked the captain if he would like to divert to an airport that was only 80 or so miles directly ahead. He attempted to use the crew phone and it said the system was unavailable. We reviewed the QRH and looked for communication via arinc. The QRH says to find the frequencies in the fom. This is ridiculous to have the emergency contact frequencies for a possible emergency situation to be buried in another manual. With time of the essence and another call from the first flight attendant I told the captain I could talk to ATC and initiate a diversion if he wanted to talk to the flight attendant and get any other necessary information. He agreed and we initiated a diversion. At this point we still had not been able to contact dispatch via the crew phone app or use the arinc process. I called center and told them we had a medical [situation] and would like to divert. He quickly provided direct and we began our descent. I asked him for the destination weather which he provided. It was VFR and landing to the west. The captain was still talking to the flight attendant and said the emt was performing compressions on our passenger. He asked if I had talked to dispatch yet. I told him I was calling operations and would have them notify dispatch. During the descent I called operations. She was a tremendous help and did a great job! I told her we would be diverting and we had a medical [situation]. I told her we had not talked to dispatch yet and asked her to call them. She asked what our aircraft type was and relayed the information to dispatch. The captain was back from talking to the first flight attendant and asked if I had talked to dispatch. I told him I spoke with operations and they were taking care of it. He then took the aircraft while we were in our descent. We landed without incident and our passenger was alert and speaking as he was taken off the aircraft by the paramedics. Each co-worker did an outstanding job during our diversion. From the quick action of the flight attendants; and the very calm demeanor of our first relaying the necessary information the inflight crew did a fantastic job. The operations agents were fantastic. They all took the load off of us as pilots so we could get the aircraft safely on the ground. The failure was our electronic crew phone app and the lack of quick reference to the necessary arinc frequencies in our QRH. The crew phone app being unavailable was a serious hindrance. Looking to the QRH and not having readily available arinc frequencies and being told to reference an entirely different manual is dumb. We barely had the time to use the crew phone app; let alone figure out which of the manuals the frequencies may be hiding in. Very; very frustrating. We more than likely did not have the time to contact dispatch via arinc as the time from the first call from the first flight attendant to the time we landed was probably less than 15 minutes. The arinc frequencies should be placed back into the QRH.

Related reports:

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 First Officer reported during a medical situation their crew phone was out of service and it was difficult to find the ARINC frequencies in their manuals.

Narrative: After reaching our cruise altitude we received a call from the first Flight Attendant stating they had a passenger in the back that was at some point unconscious and they had an EMT on board evaluating their condition. They then called back again and stated the EMT felt the passenger was in or approaching cardiac arrest and they would be using the AED. At this point I asked the Captain if he would like to divert to an airport that was only 80 or so miles directly ahead. He attempted to use the Crew Phone and it said the system was unavailable. We reviewed the QRH and looked for communication via ARINC. The QRH says to find the frequencies in the FOM. This is ridiculous to have the emergency contact frequencies for a possible emergency situation to be buried in another manual. With time of the essence and another call from the first Flight Attendant I told the Captain I could talk to ATC and initiate a diversion if he wanted to talk to the Flight Attendant and get any other necessary information. He agreed and we initiated a diversion. At this point we still had not been able to contact Dispatch via the crew phone app or use the ARINC process. I called Center and told them we had a medical [situation] and would like to divert. He quickly provided direct and we began our descent. I asked him for the destination weather which he provided. It was VFR and landing to the west. The Captain was still talking to the Flight Attendant and said the EMT was performing compressions on our passenger. He asked if I had talked to Dispatch yet. I told him I was calling Operations and would have them notify Dispatch. During the descent I called Operations. She was a tremendous help and did a great job! I told her we would be diverting and we had a medical [situation]. I told her we had not talked to Dispatch yet and asked her to call them. She asked what our aircraft type was and relayed the information to Dispatch. The Captain was back from talking to the first Flight Attendant and asked if I had talked to Dispatch. I told him I spoke with Operations and they were taking care of it. He then took the aircraft while we were in our descent. We landed without incident and our passenger was alert and speaking as he was taken off the aircraft by the paramedics. Each co-worker did an outstanding job during our diversion. From the quick action of the flight attendants; and the very calm demeanor of our First relaying the necessary information the inflight crew did a fantastic job. The operations agents were fantastic. They all took the load off of us as pilots so we could get the aircraft safely on the ground. The failure was our electronic crew phone app and the lack of quick reference to the necessary ARINC frequencies in our QRH. The crew phone app being unavailable was a serious hindrance. Looking to the QRH and not having readily available ARINC frequencies and being told to reference an entirely different manual is dumb. We barely had the time to use the crew phone app; let alone figure out which of the manuals the frequencies may be hiding in. Very; very frustrating. We more than likely did not have the time to contact Dispatch via ARINC as the time from the first call from the first Flight Attendant to the time we landed was probably less than 15 minutes. The ARINC frequencies should be placed back into the QRH.

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.