She travels alone and her epilepsy is invisible: the card slipped in with her boarding pass tells the cabin crew what to do if Lila loses consciousness at thirty thousand feet
A card slipped between the passport and the boarding pass, scanned by the purser before takeoff or by the flight attendant who comes to the seat, and the crew knows in thirty seconds what may happen, what to do, and what is better left alone.
This case is about a 24-year-old woman who lives with epilepsy that is stable most of the time, and who flies alone. The profile is written by her, for a crew she will never see again and who will have only a few minutes to react.
The moment as lived
A 6 h 40 flight to Lisbon, row 23, aisle seat. Lila slept four hours the night before, which worries her a little. In the cabin, the purser finishes checking seatbelts, the trolleys creak, someone laughs three rows away. She knows that lack of sleep, harsh spotlights and the fatigue of travel do not mix well with her.
At boarding, she handed her card to the steward at the door. He scanned the QR in one move, read three lines, nodded, and noted her seat number on his service tablet. An hour after takeoff, Lila recognizes the sign she knows too well: a metallic taste in her mouth, the surroundings drifting away. She has barely enough time to raise her hand toward the call button.
The flight attendant arrives, calm. She folds back the armrest, wedges a cushion under her head, loosens her collar, puts nothing in her mouth, and looks at her watch. She informs the captain without running. Five minutes later, Lila opens her eyes, exhausted, and the first thing she hears is a voice saying her first name. Nobody shouted along the rows, nobody went looking for a doctor on the fly.
- You write it
- The QR is in place
- The reader scans
- Understood, without explaining again
Where to place the QR for this case
A crew changes on every flight, and nobody rummages through a handbag in the middle of an aisle. The QR must therefore be within reach of Lila herself, her seat neighbor and the cabin crew, without having to unpack anything.
- Card slipped between the passport and the boarding pass, taken out at security and then at the aircraft door: the steward sees it from the moment of welcome.
- Seat pocket in front of her, card placed against the in-flight magazine, for the flight attendant who steps in when Lila can no longer show anything.
- Wallpaper of the locked phone, QR visible without a passcode, for a crew looking for information without touching her belongings.
- Bracelet in silicone or a passport pouch worn around the neck, as a backup, in case the bag stayed in the overhead bin.
To avoid: the QR stuck on the back of the boarding pass, which changes hands, or stored in the cabin bag, out of reach. The rule here is redundancy: three places, none of which depends on an open bag. To prepare the profile, a myHandiQR profile is all you need.
Ready-made text templates
The templates below are a starting point for filling in the profile sections. They can be rewritten in your own words: the way you describe what you feel coming is yours alone, and that detail is what makes the profile useful to a crew.
For the "Introduction" section
"My name is Lila, I'm 24 and I live with epilepsy. It is stable most of the time, but fatigue, lack of sleep and bright lights can wake it up. I travel alone. Between episodes, I am independent and I talk normally."
For the "How to help" section
"If I lose consciousness: clear the space around me, protect my head with a cushion, turn me onto my side when the shaking stops. Note the time it started. Speak to me calmly afterwards, it takes me a few minutes to find my words. Inform the captain and follow your procedure."
For the "What to avoid" section
"Do not put anything in my mouth, no water, no medication during the episode. Do not hold me down. Do not call the whole row for help. Do not ask me to stand up right afterwards. Do not talk about me out loud as if I were not there."
Conditions covered by this case
This case applies first of all to epilepsy. It also works for other particularities that can show up while traveling without warning: repeated faintness, brief loss of consciousness, panic attacks in enclosed spaces. The principle stays the same, only the instructions change.
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