Can I Fly With a Broken Leg?
It’s possible to fly with a broken leg or any other broken or fractured bone if a doctor clears you for flying. However, there are rules and regulations that everyone should know about, as well as best practices to make the trip as comfortable as possible.
The first, more important step is getting the green light to fly from a physician. That includes your regular physician at home or a doctor in another location if you are injured while on vacation and require medical reparation.
Experienced flight nurses like those who work for Flying Angels have years of experience in aviation physiology and understand how to manage medical treatment for those with many different illnesses and conditions, including broken bones.
Can I Hire a Nurse to Fly With Me?
Best Practices To Fly With a Broken Leg
The following provides an overview of the process you must go through if you want to fly with a broken leg. Keep in mind that a non-emergency medical transport company deals with many of these issues if you decide to fly with a flight nurse.
Speak With Physician
Do not book a flight until a physician gives you clearance to fly. This is especially an issue if the broken or fractured bone happened recently. In the first days after a break occurs, swelling is a frequent issue and may worsen if you sit on a long flight. The chance of a blood clot may increase with a broken leg, too, especially on a long flight. Follow whatever advice they give you and wait until they decide you may safely travel.
Contact the Airline
Reach out to the airline and find out if they have any rules prohibiting people from flying with the type of cast you have on your leg. It’s also possible you may need to purchase an extra seat in order to stretch your leg out during the flight. This is also the time to make any special requests you might have, such as requiring a wheelchair. Also, when booking the flight, request a bulkhead seat for more leg room, or at least an aisle seat.
Medications
Pack any medication you are taking for the broken leg in your carry-on bags, not your checked-in luggage. Make sure to have water available so you can take your pills when necessary.
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Extra Time
Arrive early at the airport to give yourself extra time to get through check in and security. You will likely need extra time at security, as you can expect them to physically check out your cast, including the possibility they will swab it to detect explosives. If you use crutches or a wheelchair, they also will go through the metal detector.
Boarding
Airlines provide a window early on in boarding for those with special conditions – including those with a broken leg – to board before anyone else, allowing you to get situated before the main rush of passengers boards the plane.
At any point, don’t hesitate to ask for help from airport or airline personnel. If you do not fly with a nurse, consider bringing someone to the airport with you to help get to security (or to the gate if allowed). While obviously not an ideal situation, you can fly with a broken leg if you take the proper medical precautions and follow best practices at the airport and on the plane. You also want to consider hiring a flight nurse who can handle many of these issues for you, as well as give you the peace of mind of having an experienced medical care provider with you throughout your trip.
How to Help Medical Elopement Patients Travel
Patient elopement is a common issue that often stems from other behavioral issues, including dementia. Elopement patients can present many problems for their loved ones, especially during elopement patient travel. Such situations usually go better with medical professionals involved, strong guidelines to follow and a focus on patient safety.
Much like air travel for dementia patients, elopement patient travel requires a different approach than regular non-emergency medical transport (NEMT). Physicians may recommend that elopement patients not travel at all. They may feel more inclined to allow it if medical professionals are on hand.
What Is An Elopement Patient?
The term “elopement patient” refers to someone who leaves a care facility, including hospitals or nursing homes, without permission. These unauthorized decisions put the patient in danger of injury or worse.
In most cases, the term refers to those with dementia leaving a safe area, most often their home or a care facility, according to Very Well Health. Elopement patients may decide to leave intentionally, although in many cases it is unintentional. The patient simply walks with a destination in mind, but soon becomes lost (a situation called “wandering”).
In many cases, an elopement patient leaves a building if they do not have constant supervision. They may decide to leave when sent to another area to get a blood test or medical procedure, or while going to the bathroom.
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Dealing With Elopement Patients
Most medical facilities have procedures in place to manage elopement patients. Writing about the issue for Health Leaders Media, a nurse recommended that nurses always immediately identify those at a higher risk for elopement. They include those with severe psychosis, dementia, or drug and alcohol withdrawal.
But elopement can happen with anyone. Warning signs of those at a high risk for elopement include:
- A history of attempted elopement or wandering
- Talking about leaving, wanting to go to work or go home
- Restlessness and agitation
- Showing signs and symptoms of dementia
- The ability to move freely, with or without a wheelchair or walker, when they have other signs on this list
- Those able-bodied enough that people may mistake them for a visitor
Elopement Patient Travel
All the above precautions and signs also apply to elopement patient travel. As elopement patients typically have some level of dementia, the rules offered by the Alzheimer’s Association for travel apply in this situation.
The association recommends planning ahead, not overloading the person with too much information, and sticking with familiar destinations. People should avoid elaborate tours or sightseeing, both of which could overwhelm or confuse a person with dementia. They also recommend that those traveling with a person who has dementia to stay with them at all times.
People can benefit from having a trained nurse on the journey who can watch the patient closely during their trip. They also manage medication and equipment and provide any medical services required during the trip. A trained flight nurse can provide both the patient and their family peace of mind.
Having an experienced medical professional while traveling with an elopement patient is key to having a calm trip. While elopement patient travel presents unique challenges, proper care and planning can allow everyone involved to enjoy the trip.
Can a Bedbound Patient Be Transported on a Commercial Airline?
It’s possible for a bedbound patient to fly on a commercial airline, but only with certain international airlines and only on select flights. Doing so requires extensive planning with the airline so they can prepare the plane to safely transport a bedridden passenger. This requires contacting the airline well in advance of the planned trip.
It’s an area where a flight nurse can provide a great deal of help. An RN flight coordinator working for a non-emergency transport company (NEMT) will make all the travel arrangements for a client. That includes booking flights and arranging any special accommodations.
However, transporting a bedridden patient is typically not possible on a domestic flight. And even on an international flight, providing accommodations for bedbound patients are often very difficult to set up.
Types of Bedridden Patients
A bedbound patient may want to fly for a number of different reasons. Many of those most common situations involve medical reparation (someone flying back to the U.S. on an international flight after getting injured while on vacation) or experiencing a medical event, such as a stroke. Other postoperative patients may travel after recovery from surgery.
People need to remain bedridden during a flight, typically on a stretcher, because they are unable to sit up in a standard airplane seat during taxiing, takeoff and landing. They almost always fly with an experienced medical professional who can oversee their care during the flight.
Are Bedbound Patients Allowed on a Domestic Flight?
There are no stretcher options to fly someone domestically. The only airlines who offer stretcher service are outside the United States: Lufthansa, Korean Air, Qatar, and Emirates. And even these airlines only do so on select international flights.
While other international airlines may state they offer stretcher service, the logistics of getting it set up are extremely difficult and often not possible.
Domestic airlines require that passengers be able to tolerate sitting for up to 15 to 20 minutes. For bedbound patients, that is often not possible.
For those who can tolerate sitting up, a NEMT company provides a safe, low-cost alternative to an air ambulance. However, bedbound patients may have difficulty flying without using an air ambulance.
How to Fly Someone from the Hospital to Hospice
Hospital to hospice travel is difficult under the best of circumstances. For those who need a commercial airline flight, it can add an extra layer of complexity and stress. However, it’s not something people have to do alone.
Non-emergency medical transportation services provide an option for families searching for ways to safely transport a loved one from hospital to hospice. Given the situation, it’s one of the more demanding journeys a family can make. Having a flight nurse travel with a patient can make the journey less stressful.
For seniors looking to reduce the stress of travel, NEMT can offer assistance in any situation involving travel for the elderly, including making the journey from hospital to hospice.
Elderly Transport From Hospital to Hospice
The first consideration in transporting people from hospital to hospice is practicing kindness and respect toward the patient. For those searching for NEMT services in this area, make sure that the treatment from the outset reflects this mindset.
When researching NEMT companies to provide hospital to hospice transport, focus on companies that address the following areas.
- Making all travel arrangements, including any special services needed to help the patient easily get through the airport and on board the plane
- Any special accommodations needed in-flight
- Medical services when required throughout the flight, including keeping track of medications and medical equipment
- Going over the trip plan in advance to prepare the patient and family
It’s helpful to work with those who have experience working with airlines and airports at both domestic and international destinations, making it easier to set up any special accommodations. Nurses who fly with patients from hospital to hospice should also have years of experience in providing care and hold the necessary certifications to provide medical care at high altitudes.
An Example of Hospital to Hospice Transportation
Flying Angels recently had the honor of working with Jill Connaway in transporting her mother from a hospital in Missouri to Jill’s home in California. She found Flying Angels while doing research. As she wrote in a Facebook post, she heard from CEO Bob Bacheler within an hour after reaching out through the Flying Angels website.
“He was clear and upfront about what the estimated cost and process to get mom home would be. He was extremely patient and flexible as the plan continued to change as mom bounced between the hospital and rehab center for a month,” she wrote. “When it finally went time, he had our travel coordinated within 48 hours, including a ticket for me, so I could be on the same flight with mom.”
She said the flight nurse who traveled with her Mom, Elise, “was awesome.” She visited the day before the trip, setting expectations and preparing the pair for the trip. Jill wrote that Elise did everything possible to make the difficult trip “smooth and seamless.”
“She coordinated all of the details with the hospital. And she is just a very kind, congenial person,” she wrote. “Her attention to detail is superb. And the fact that she managed our travel so well really took a lot of the stress off of me and my mom. Plus she was very encouraging, especially at the very end of the trip when mom was so exhausted; she really cheered her on and kept her going.”
Expertise in Medical Transport
Flying Angels has years of experience providing non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) to patients in all types of situations. They include people injured while traveling who need to get back home, seniors relocating to a new home, and those with disabilities or medical conditions that make it difficult to travel on their own.
However, traveling from hospital to hospice is one of the most special journeys a person can make when using NEMT. The nurses and staff at Flying Angels feel gratitude for being asked to provide medical care during such an important time.
Jill summed up the company’s approach in her Facebook post. “I am so pleased that I reached out to Flying Angels,” she wrote, “I am grateful that there are people like Bob and Elise in the world who care so deeply and take such good care of people who are often in the most vulnerable places in their lives.”