The doctor is in

Third Prize winner

MANILA, Philippines - As a doctor with a passion for travel, I’ve had my fair share of medical emergencies in the air. There was the lady with pneumonia who couldn’t breathe, and needed oxygen to make it safety to landing. And then there was the Japanese sensei who fainted right in the middle of a flight due to dehydration. Somehow, however, when the stars aligned and I was needed on a SIA flight from Paris, everything just had to be subtly different.

There I was, with a row all to myself in an all-new Economy Class seat, and on came the PA: “Ladies and gentlemen, if there is a doctor on board, please identify yourself to a member of the crew.” As I gingerly stood up, a flight attendant addressed me by name. “Dr. Habito?” I was asked. Pretty impressive, I thought…

Led by the chief attendant to a young gentleman from London five rows ahead, I promptly diagnosed an allergic reaction to peanuts. Besides him was a huge medical bag, which made the plane seem like a virtual flying emergency room (suffice to say that I could have done surgery and delivered a baby with everything they had on board). Three pills and an hour later, I was approached by another attendant with a plate of cookies and warm milk. “Dr. Habito, we’d like to thank you for you help,” I was told. “If there’s anything else we can do to be of service to you, please let us know.” During our short chat, I ended up mentioning I had a little daughter and, in a few minutes, a take-home bag of in-flight toys magically appeared.

Just before landing in Singapore, the chief attendant came with yet another surprise. In an envelope was a card with a personal signed note of thanks from the captain for my services. With it was a voucher for an in-flight shopping spree on my connecting flight to Manila.

In the end, it turned out to be the most enjoyable emergency of my life, and though no doctor relishes the thought of a medical event in the air, if you ask me, either as patient or doctor, I’d be comfortable in the future on none other than Singapore Airlines and the A380.