The Qantas flight from LA to Auckland is always long and uncomfortable but ours was quite a bit longer than expected. Amongst our deployment group was a new South Pole doctor. She had heard about the program from the book written by another South Pole doc who had done her own breast biopsy one winter. This new doc was inspired by the tales of camaraderie and the bravery of all the people at the Pole who worked together to help the sick doctor be evacuated during a time of total darkness when no planes fly to Antarctica.
This new doc, Pat, didn’t have to wait long to have an opportunity to prove herself. Not more than 3 hours into the flight, one of the flight crew requested medical assistance from any certified medical professionals. We didn’t know at the time that Pat and one of the McMurdo firefighters had volunteered their expertise but several hours later, when the pilot made an announcement that we were, regretfully, making an emergency landing in Tahiti, we learned that the two of them had spent the night awake with the patient who had taken a turn for the worse. An ambulance was waiting at the airport in Tahiti to get the sick patient to better medical facilities.
We landed in the dark and descended down the steps onto the tarmac, greeted by a humid tropical breeze and tall women in floral dresses and fresh flowers in their hair. We spent the next hour and a half in the small airport, watching the sun rise and talking amongst ourselves about how great it would be to have to stay for a day or two. Pat told us how the patient might have experienced a heart attack and the medical experts in Phoenix (or wherever they are) advised the pilot to get to the closest country with a hospital. Though Tahiti was 3 hours out of the way, when you’re in the middle of the South Pacific, there aren’t many countries to choose from.
We did eventually arrive in Auckland and all of us had already missed our connecting flights to Christchurch. Qantas frantically struggled to get us on Air New Zealand flights. You can imagine the chaos….a whole 757 plane load of people, many of whom were flying elsewhere in New Zealand or onto Australia, who needed to be rebooked.
We survived the lines, the security, the wait and the last flight for an uneventful trip to Christchurch where we met our shuttle drivers (who had practically taken over the Meet and Greet on which the company economized), drove into town, checked into our hostels and went out for Greek food.
