Posted on 02/24/2008 8:14:18 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
NEW YORK — An American Airlines passenger died after a flight attendant told her he couldn't give her any oxygen and then tried to help her with faulty equipment, including an empty oxygen tank, a relative said.
The airline confirmed the flight death and said medical professionals had tried to save the passenger, Carine Desir, who was returning home to Brooklyn from Haiti.
Desir, who had heart disease, died of natural causes, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday.
Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty on the Friday flight from Port-au-Prince after she ate a meal, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her and her brother Joel Desir. A flight attendant gave her water, he said.
A few minutes later, Desir said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said Sunday in a telephone interview.
After the flight attendant refused to administer oxygen to Desir, she became distressed, pleading, "Don't let me die," Oliver recalled.
Other passengers aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, he said, and the flight attendant, apparently after phone consultation with the cockpit, tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty.
Two doctors and two nurses were aboard and tried to administer oxygen from a second tank, which also was empty, Oliver said.
Desir was put on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR, to no avail, Oliver said. A "box," possibly a defibrillator, also was applied but didn't function effectively, he said.
"I cannot believe what is happening on the plane," he said, sobbing. "She cannot get up, and nothing on the plane works."
Oliver said he then asked for the plane to "land right away so I can get her to a hospital," and the pilot agreed to divert to Miami, 45 minutes away. But during that time, Desir died, Oliver said.
"Her last words were, 'I cannot breathe,'" he said.
Desir, 44, was pronounced dead by one of the doctors, Joel Shulkin, and the flight continued to Kennedy International Airport without stopping in Miami, with the woman's body moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said.
American Airlines spokeswoman Sonja Whitemon wouldn't comment Sunday on Oliver's claims of faulty medical equipment. Shulkin, through his attorney, Justin Nadeau, declined to comment on the incident out of respect for Desir's family.
American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp. and based in Fort Worth, Texas, is the largest domestic airline.
I agree, but the judgment should be kept within reason. If, every time a person or company is negligent, they are awarded tens of million of dollars (as you seemed to suggest they should be) it simply places an enormous tort tax on everyone who uses those products or services, and in many cases will completely drive them from the market.
In it's own sick little way...
“Flight attendants aren’t qualified to diagnose the need for O2.”
Believe me...at United Airlines, the flight attendants reached for the tank and administered oxygen whenever anyone was sick!
As an RN, I shook my head many times knowing that oxygen was not needed in many cases. But that was the only thing other flight attendants knew...they thought oxygen was the answer to any illness inflight.
I worked flights where we had to administer oxygen during the flight. We were all trained how to do it and what the PSI levels should be. During Jet Emergency Training, we had to “administer” it to each other.
Prayers for the victim and her family.
The airlines aren’t the only clueless ones......
I was in a Doctor’s office, sitting 3 ft. from an oxygen bottle (which I was in need of) and they couldn’t find the mask to administer it with!
They had to call the paramedics!!!
I wonder if this would have happened had AA not laid off all the TWA F/As after the buyout.
Don't the flight attendants have individual bottles? I thought that was how they continued to work in a decompression situation. At any rate, I'm not placing a lot of weight on what this dude says. I'll wait for the facts.
Not gonna comment on that one...
:>)
Stopped completely? You sure there wasn’t a little epinephrine involved there, too.
Exactly! As I said before, I not only checked "mine", I checked every other section's "just in case". It was drilled into our heads that we were NOT on the plane to pass out peanuts, but for SAFETY. I took that very seriously.
>As an RN, I shook my head many times knowing that oxygen was not needed in many cases.<
The O2 certainly wouldn’t cause any harm. It could only benefit the person by raising the O2 level in the brain.
“The O2 certainly wouldn’t cause any harm. It could only benefit the person by raising the O2 level in the brain.”
You’re talking like a layman. Believe me...it just wasn’t needed at times.
Yep. And if she wasn't 'fibbing', there was nothing to defib. I'd guess heart failure, and the reduced oxygen level brought on by altitude (most aircraft aren't pressurized at ground level) probably pushed her over the edge. Much more to be discovered here.
It was my bedside manner?
I didn’t get that the defibrillator didn’t work, I got that it had no affect. There is a difference.
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I’ll wait for the second round of reporting here ,, this is too preliminary for me... I can see empty O2 bottles but an inop defib would be unusual ,, it’s the simplest piece of equipment ,, just some capacitors and a switch,, the only reason they cost more than $20 is because of lawsuits..
Maybe the boardroom eyes?
“I took that very seriously.”
We did too! If those tanks on that flight were indeed empty...the flight attendants no longer have a job, and AA is going to pay big time!
“Maybe the boardroom eyes?”
LOL!
“Maybe the boardroom eyes?”
Yeah..if they were bedroom eyes, I could have had a meatball sandwich instead of chicken...and even wine with it!
Yep.
I don’t think their F/A union could even bail them out of this one (Or would even want to). This is a bit beyond the “sneaking a bottle of champagne off the plane” infraction.
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