Air carrier captain reported during an inflight medical emergency with an unconscious passenger; nei...

Narrative:

During a medical emergency; the flight attendants and 2 medical doctors onboard were not able to use the blood pressure cuff on an unconscious passenger. The 2 medical doctors onboard were able to estimate the passenger's blood pressure. Medical personnel have guidance to do this. The neuro-anesthesiologist that I spoke to on the interphone used the same procedure that medlink explained to me to estimate the blood pressure since the blood pressure cuff did not work. [It] was explained by a couple of flight attendants that the new blood pressure cuffs are different than those we used to carry. I was told that old cuff had regular; everyday pressure cuffs onboard; however; now they are totally different kind and that during recurrent they are being taught how to use; however; that these new pressure cuffs at times do not work or no one can figure out how it works. I sent an ACARS message to maintenance and the blood pressure cuff was entered on the maintenance log upon arrival.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported during an inflight medical emergency with an unconscious passenger; neither two physicians nor the flight attendants could operate a new model blood pressure cuff.

Narrative: During a medical emergency; the flight attendants and 2 medical doctors onboard were not able to use the blood pressure cuff on an unconscious passenger. The 2 medical doctors onboard were able to estimate the passenger's blood pressure. Medical personnel have guidance to do this. The neuro-anesthesiologist that I spoke to on the interphone used the same procedure that Medlink explained to me to estimate the blood pressure since the blood pressure cuff did not work. [It] was explained by a couple of flight attendants that the new blood pressure cuffs are different than those we used to carry. I was told that old cuff had regular; everyday pressure cuffs onboard; however; now they are totally different kind and that during recurrent they are being taught how to use; however; that these new pressure cuffs at times do not work or no one can figure out how it works. I sent an ACARS message to maintenance and the blood pressure cuff was entered on the maintenance log upon arrival.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1411872
Time
Date	201612
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	First Aid Equipment with Medical Kit & Defibrillator
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness

Air carrier captain reported during an inflight medical emergency with an unconscious passenger; neither two physicians nor the flight attendants could operate a new model blood pressure cuff.