What's wrong with this picture? Ethics in mid-air.

While doing my daily media rounds from around the world and from different sources I came upon this story from the CBC .

The story revolves around Air Canada and a Dr which came to the aid of a fellow passenger in mid-flight. Nothing special or newsworthy about that, not yet, anyway. As it turns out, said Dr. took Air Canada to small claims court for the services provided while on the plane.

The passenger was having some sort of panic attack. There was another Dr. on the plane, however the passenger for some reason did not trust the other Dr. so the Dr. of our story (Henry Coopersmith) had to intervene.

When he got home, he contacted the airline for two free first class trans-atlantic tickets as compensation for services rendered. Air Canada offered 10,000 frequent flyer points. So he decides to take the airline to court for an amount of $ 3058.00. The court determined the airline should pay him $ 1000.00. He says he will donate the money to a hospital. That's fine and dandy... except.

As I see it, this man was putting his self gain before the well being of the passenger. Whatever happened to ethics here? In my 34 years of life I am yet to see a police officer while off-duty doing his job and demand recognition or pay. He made an oath to protect and serve and I ask, is it not the same case here.

Perhaps some people would argue that he went out of his way to help some one when he was on his free time and needs to be compensated for that. Maybe I have it wrong, but I thought when you are a Dr. you are first a Dr. and the rest is secondary.

Example, while on a war and an injured enemy is captured, what happens? The Dr. which has taken an oath to his profession, first makes sure he does everything within his power to preserve the life of the injured soldier or cure him. In other words, he has in front of him a fellow human being who needs medical attention, not an enemy soldier. At that precise moment, that's irrelevant.