B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 193; Flight Crew Total 1140; Flight Crew Type 1140
Time Pressure; Workload
Deviation - Speed All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Diverted; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors
I was told by an Internist and Medlink that my passenger would not live more than 1 hour. We made the decision to divert to ZZZ. We were coming in very high. We could not comply with a crossing restriction. I came back into the loop from handling the medical issue and took the plane back from the First Officer. I noted we were 3;000 feet high at the final approach fix. I did not want to risk going around. I asked for the gear down at 8;000 ft. After a couple minutes we had lost the extra altitude and I asked for the gear up. I was at 242 kts. I unintentionally exceeded the gear retraction speed. I should have noted the limit; but was prejudiced flying other equipment that 242 kts was slow enough to retract the gear. We made a write up. The exceedance was cleared by Maintenance Control. We exceeded the retraction speed by 7 kts. No damage to the aircraft.
B737 Captain reported that distraction during a time critical medical diversion caused him to exceed a landing gear speed limitation.