Is there a lawyer on board? In-flight emergencies and other Good Samaritan acts

The legal liability of paramedics and other health professionals who perform Good Samaritan acts, particularly in response to in-flight emergencies on commercial aircraft, is a topic about which there is disproportionate and largely unwarranted concern. Much of that concern appears to be generated by sensational headlines (Leonard, 2008) and urban legend yet, as one of the major medical defence organisations notes,

‘Even though it is theoretically possible, to our knowledge, there have been no reported cases of a doctor ever being sued successfully for acting as a Good Samaritan in a medical emergency’ (Seddon, 2012.)

In the United States, this fear of legal liability had made many health professionals reluctant to provide emergency care outside of their normal professional setting, which has led all 50 states to enact some form of ‘Good Samaritan laws’. Their concern is perhaps understandable. As long ago as 1963, in the American TV drama Doctor Kildare, the eponymous fictional doctor was successfully sued by a couple whose child he delivered stillborn in a Good Samaritan act at the side of the road (Season 3, Episode 2, 3 October, 1963). As Professor Edward Richards, a public health law specialist at Louisiana State University Law Center, notes (2009):