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Medical calls at airport increase during holiday season, officials say

By Gina Esposito, wsoctv.com
By Gina Esposito, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Holiday travel can be stressful for just about everyone, but especially those who have health problems.

“When I get to the airport, I get very flustered, and I don’t know why but it happens,” said traveler Beverly Yeeaee.

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Yeeaee visits her family in Charlotte once a year and, for the very first time, she decided to use an American Airlines wheelchair service to get to her gate.

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“Last year, I came, and I had to stop and take nitroglycerin because I thought I was going to have a heart attack, so I decided not to take the chance anymore, she said.

Medic Operations supervisor Don Overcash said medical calls at the airport increase around the holidays.

Channel 9’s Gina Esposito was at Charlotte Douglas Airport Monday morning and saw a man being loaded into an ambulance parked outside the airport.

Officials told Esposito the traveler had non-threatening injuries, but his condition was serious enough that he had to miss his flight.

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“There are going to be people with heart conditions, diabetic problems or significant medical issues that are going to require transport to the hospitals,” said Overcash.

Tuesday and Sunday are the busiest days to fly over the holiday weekend and between those two days, paramedics received 31 calls to the airport and took 11 people to the hospital.

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Channel 9 compared those numbers to the Tuesday and Sunday of the prior week and found that Medic received 18 calls and transported three people, which means there was a 72 percent increase in calls over the holiday weekend.

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Officials said Medic personnel have treated patients at the airport for things like falls, nausea, respiratory issues and dehydration and cardiac arrest. They said while some medical problems can be treated on-site,  there are many cases when a person has to be transported.

“A lot of people don’t plan ahead. You have travelers who forget their medicine, and the stress aggravates their medical condition, which creates a medical emergency,” said Overcash.

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