Narrative:

The passenger in 13B approximately turned on her assistance light. We had been sitting in this hot and getting hotter; aircraft for over 40 minutes with the door closed and no APU. When I got to her I knew she was in distress. She was able to get out the words 'diabetic'. I told her I would call a medical. I called the flight crew and said we have a medical; I'll get back to you. Now I ask for a doctor on board. The passenger in 1A quickly said 'yes what's the problem.' me '13B diabetic.' he went immediately to her.another passenger closer to her had gotten up to help and he came back to me relaying the doctor's orders. Orange juice and water. I sent this by him and called the flight crew back to give all the information. Flight crew relayed info to operations. Within minutes the passenger had come back around and after an additional 10-15 minutes was given the ok; by the doctor; to fly. I asked her if she wanted to continue to ZZZ and she said yes. I could see she was in full possession of her faculties and with the doctor's ok only if we take off immediately.the doctor confirmed that this episode was a direct result of sitting in an overly hot aircraft for an extended amount of time with no air conditioning. I relayed the information to the flight crew and the captain said he would relay the information to operations because we were in a very long line for take-off and would see if we could get a medical clearance to go ahead. This was obtained and we did move out in front of the long line and took off. I checked on my passenger in 13B many times during the very turbulent flight and she was doing well. I passed out can drinks to everyone on board to help with the thirst and overheating that we all had gone through. I used the can drinks because of the turbulence and this was safer than having an open bottle of water in my arms that could have gone awry. The full cause of this incident was a deferred APU on a CRJ200. This happens way too often with no thought for the passengers and crew on board. This has to stop; and these aircraft must be repaired and not deferred. This has been a problem for way too long. This practice must stop for the safety of the crew and passengers.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 Flight Attendant reported lack of air conditioning caused by a deferred APU resulted in a passenger medical emergency.

Narrative: The passenger in 13B approximately turned on her assistance light. We had been sitting in this hot and getting hotter; aircraft for over 40 minutes with the door closed and no APU. When I got to her I knew she was in distress. She was able to get out the words 'Diabetic'. I told her I would call a medical. I called the flight crew and said we have a medical; I'll get back to you. Now I ask for a doctor on board. The passenger in 1A quickly said 'Yes what's the problem.' Me '13B Diabetic.' He went immediately to her.Another passenger closer to her had gotten up to help and he came back to me relaying the doctor's orders. Orange juice and water. I sent this by him and called the flight crew back to give all the information. Flight crew relayed info to Operations. Within minutes the passenger had come back around and after an additional 10-15 minutes was given the OK; by the doctor; to fly. I asked her if she wanted to continue to ZZZ and she said yes. I could see she was in full possession of her faculties and with the doctor's OK only if we take off immediately.The doctor confirmed that this episode was a direct result of sitting in an overly hot aircraft for an extended amount of time with no air conditioning. I relayed the information to the flight crew and the Captain said he would relay the information to Operations because we were in a very long line for take-off and would see if we could get a medical clearance to go ahead. This was obtained and we did move out in front of the long line and took off. I checked on my passenger in 13B many times during the very turbulent flight and she was doing well. I passed out can drinks to everyone on board to help with the thirst and overheating that we all had gone through. I used the can drinks because of the turbulence and this was safer than having an open bottle of water in my arms that could have gone awry. The full cause of this incident was a deferred APU on a CRJ200. This happens way too often with no thought for the passengers and crew on board. This has to stop; and these aircraft must be repaired and not deferred. This has been a problem for way too long. This practice must stop for the safety of the Crew and Passengers.

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.