The problem with epinephrine is it’s expensive and goes out of date quickly. Piriton can help but does make people drowsy. Someone with known anaphylaxis should have their own epipen. I might put one in an airliner but not in anything smaller.
I’m not sure of the legal status of giving passengers a paracetamol. Schools and nursing homes in the UK can give ‘homely remedies’ without a prescription. But in my experience they rarely do.
kwlf wrote:
I’m not sure of the legal status of giving passengers a paracetamol.
I have asked for pain relief drugs on multiple airline flights and they always gave me a box of ibuprophen or paracetamol. It seems that they were taking it from sum official box and not just the bag of one of the FAs. I do not see why giving an OTC drug to a conscious pax would be any different from giving him/her food or drinks.
JnsV wrote:
I have asked for pain relief drugs on multiple airline flights and they always gave me a box of ibuprophen or paracetamol.
If you ask me for one, I will happily give you one out of our box. That’s why we have them on board. But I am not allowed to tell you: “Sir, you look as if you could need a good dose of Paracetamol. Here, have one one the house!” Obviously, there is a big legal difference between those two options in case you react adversely to the drug.
Martin wrote:
I’m surprised epinephrine isn’t on that list.
I think that is because it can be a dangerous medicine when not properly used? (imho, when you are not used to work with it)
Intravenous epinephrine is dangerous but most people would survive an epipen (intramuscular) dose with no ill effects. Asthma inhalers are another thing it’s very nice to have when you need them and where the risks are low. Ibuprofen can be risky for some.
On the other hand, electrocuting people is hardly risk-free and rarely works, yet we seem very happy to fundraise for school defibrillators – despite the fact that kids rarely have heart attacks but often have anaphylaxis or asthma attacks which teachers are generally unwilling to treat with safe medicines. I don’t blame them. I can understand why. But it is frustrating. I still don’t think a pa28 needs most of these things though.
I never had one on board, but then, about 5 years ago, my wife mentioned it might be helpful and we added one to our equipment. A few weeks later I sliped of the wet step tread of our Piper Arrow and slit my shin very deep. Blood allover. I was happy to have the medical kit with my. So I could apply a pressure bandage. Next day I went to the hospital, they sewed my shin and it rested a 5 cm long scar.
Airlines usually have two medical kits.
The first is a general first aid kit and the cabin crew are trained and authorised to use this, for leagal resons hey can’t give you any drugs but if you choose to take something ( over the counter medication ) and sign the disclaimer you can have it, you can blame the lawyers for this extra paperwork.
The second box known as the doctors kit can only be used by trained medical personnel with the permission of the aircraft commander, this kit contains a lot of high powerd medication and is tightly controlled ( if you are in maintenance and have to change one of these boxes you can expect more security than the Crown Jewels and an hour of paperwork ).
I know of one case were a passenger appeared to be in huge amounts of pain and a doctor on board used the morphine and the passengers pain seemed to go away by the time the aircraft landed. The story got out on the cabin crews very effective communication network ( known as galley FM ) and It started to become apparent that this was not the first time this passenger had become ill on an aircraft and been prescribed morphine.
After a bit of safety report coralation ( not as fast or efficient as galley FM ) it was discovered that this passenger was buying the very cheapest tickets and faking illness on the flight to get a morphine fix, one can only assume that the airline ticket was cheaper than buying drugs on the street.
Once the word got out this passenger stopped using the airline, one can only assume that they have moved on to another unsuspecting airline !
That’s a brilliant story, A&C 
My mechanic works on Airbuses (probably the very ones you fly 
) and the stories I hear are also pretty amazing (of stuff found in the passenger cabin).
I bought this one in a camping shop yesterday
and this is the content
No idea if it is any good…
Well there’s duct tape included (or so it says) so it least it could be useful in case of a broken exhaust pipe
More seriously: if one knows what there is, and how to use it, and what the limitations are, it can do a lot of good in the rare case. But take the example of the “Burn Gel Sachet” : I do know burns require QUICK care, to reduce the size and depth of damage, and of scars – but how and when to apply this “Burn Gel Sachet”? I have not the faintest idea, and it seems not imposible that improper application can do more bad than good.
Other things that are there, like the drugs (only in certain countries, like as not for legal reasons) ought to be at hand anyway.
One item got me curious: what is the use/typical application of Zinc Oxide tape?
