MedAire blog

Flight attendant involved in a motor vehicle accident 100 miles outside of Delhi.

Delhi is a bustling city with a high population density and heavy traffic. Unfortunately, this means that accidents are standard on the city's roads. Delhi's infrastructure is also a contributing factor, as some roads are poorly designed, lack proper signage, and are poorly lit, especially at night.

On a layover in Delhi, India, a flight attendant and her crew decided it would be fun to visit the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, on the way there, six crew members were involved in a motor vehicle accident about 100 miles outside Delhi. The crew members had all been transported to a local hospital for evaluation. Three were released to their hotel with only minor injuries, and three were admitted for further care.

India is a complicated country to access proper medical care, and there were concerns about the level of care available at this facility. So MedAire coordinated with the Assistance Centre in Delhi to ask for their advice and recommendations. They were very responsive, and right away, they expressed the same level of concern. They suggested obtaining medical reports of the crew members and began investigating options to move them immediately. There was a preferred facility two hours away.

One flight attendant had quite an extensive laceration on her forehead up into her scalp and suffered facial and spine fractures where she underwent suturing and reparative facial laceration surgery. Unfortunately, the treating doctor stated she was unstable to be transferred to another facility.

Within a few hours, the Delhi Assistance Centre dispatched a local physician in MedAire's network to her bedside for support and to gather a more thorough medical report. The correspondent confirmed that the flight attendant was stable enough to be transferred. The Delhi Assistance Centre secured care with a trusted neurosurgeon at another facility and transferred her that following day.

Doctors were unsatisfied with the surgery done at the first facility, so they took her back into the operating room, took everything down, cleaned it all up well, and redid additional suturing to ensure her facial wounds would heal with minimal scarring. During her six-day hospital stay, doctors inserted a drain, treated her with non-surgical repairs, and fitted her with a collar. She suffered facial and spine fractures.

With help from MedAire's Delhi Assistance Centre, we reassured the crew member about the level of care she was getting. Furthermore, the Delhi Assistance Centre facilitated communication between the crew member, her medical team, her family and the airline. Additionally, the Delhi Assistance Centre coordinated a guarantee of payment in local currency.

A local resource is critical to coordinating the best care for injured or ill crew members travelling worldwide. MedAire's vast global network of over 91,800 audited providers of medical and security across 239 countries and territories promises crew will get the best care available anywhere.