Woman dies onboard airplane with faulty equipment

[JPINFV]

Relative Complains After Death on Flight

Feb 24 10:15 PM US/Eastern

By RICHARD PYLE

Associated Press Writer

20 Comments

NEW YORK (AP) - 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.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8...;show_article=1

[wbgraidermom]

WOW! I believe that they should be trained in how to use and read the equipment properly.

[emtannie]

Just curious... I wonder what their protocols are on checking that the O2 tanks are full and that the AED is working...

If both tanks were empty and the AED wasn't working properly, it appears someone wasn't doing their job...

[ERDoc]

I can't say much about the oxygen but I am curious about the possible AED. We are hearing the family's opinion that it was not working. Was it truly defective or was it just that no shock was indicated? I think we need to hear a lot more about this before making any judgements. Even if there were oxygen in the tanks, would it have made a difference? I would be willing to be a large sum of money that the outcome would have been the same.

I don't know if I would be willing to pronounce someone on a plane. I'd much rather run the code til we get on the ground (realizing it was futile)and allow the locals to take care of the paperwork. I also would not want to be sitting with a corpse, even if it was covered.

[emtannie]

I can't say much about the oxygen but I am curious about the possible AED. We are hearing the family's opinion that it was not working. Was it truly defective or was it just that no shock was indicated?

Very good point - I bet you are right... I hadn't been thinking of that...

I don't know if I would be willing to pronounce someone on a plane. I'd much rather run the code til we get on the ground (realizing it was futile)and allow the locals to take care of the paperwork. I also would not want to be sitting with a corpse, even if it was covered.

It sounds like they were going to divert to a close airport (45 minutes away) but when the doc declared her dead, they did not divert and continued.... eeewwwww...

I guess if it was me, I would have tried to do everything possible, knowing it was futile, so that I could look the family member in the eye and be able to say "everything that could be done was done."

[BEorP]

I guess if it was me, I would have tried to do everything possible, knowing it was futile, so that I could look the family member in the eye and be able to say "everything that could be done was done."

Doesn't "doing everything possible" end when the resuscitation attempt becomes futile? This seems to say we should go through a normal arrest algorithm on people who are obviously dead just so we can tell the family that we tired everything possible even though we know that there is literally no chance of the patient surviving.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I fly every week and am on good terms with most flight attendants.

There is no way that if you go into cardiac arrest on an airplane that you are going to survive to landing unless you have a shockable rhythm and even then it's no guarantee.

There is also no probable way with even a cardiologist, a trauma surgeon and 12 paramedics and 15 nurses on board that you can survive a cardiac arrest.

You are lucky to get a medical kit that will do much good. Don't expect to be able to run a code in a plane with what the medical kit's have in them. Plus there may be a maximum of 2 if not three oxygen bottles on board.

I was on a plane at Detroit airport and a woman began to crash on us, it was myself, a physician(general practitioner) and the flight attendants. She was more than likely suffering from a PE and was rapidly going down the road to codes ville. Oxygen was applied and we got out the AED and I was informed that only the flight attendants could operate the AED per FAA Regulations. Not sure if that's true but it sounded legit.

The med kit never got opened but when asked if they had epi and atropine in the kit the flight crew said they weren't sure.

So a plane is the last place you want to code. There is no way that you can get to another airport to land in a resonable amount of time. It takes at least 20 minutes to prepare to land and to bring the plane down and that's IF you are 20 minutes from the nearest airport. Look more towards a 45 minute to 1 hour flight time to the nearest airport.

We need to look at this story from a critical viewpoint - even with the oxygen would she have died anyway? With what sounds like she needed - High flow Oxygen, the two or three tanks would probably have been emptied out regardless.

Just remember one of the cardinal rules in medicine - All patients eventually die. It was just this woman's time to go.

[ERDoc]

I fly every week and am on good terms with most flight attendants.

There is no way that if you go into cardiac arrest on an airplane that you are going to survive to landing unless you have a shockable rhythm and even then it's no guarantee.

There is also no probable way with even a cardiologist, a trauma surgeon and 12 paramedics and 15 nurses on board that you can survive a cardiac arrest.

You are lucky to get a medical kit that will do much good. Don't expect to be able to run a code in a plane with what the medical kit's have in them. Plus there may be a maximum of 2 if not three oxygen bottles on board.

I was on a plane at Detroit airport and a woman began to crash on us, it was myself, a physician(general practitioner) and the flight attendants. She was more than likely suffering from a PE and was rapidly going down the road to codes ville. Oxygen was applied and we got out the AED and I was informed that only the flight attendants could operate the AED per FAA Regulations. Not sure if that's true but it sounded legit.

The med kit never got opened but when asked if they had epi and atropine in the kit the flight crew said they weren't sure.

So a plane is the last place you want to code. There is no way that you can get to another airport to land in a resonable amount of time. It takes at least 20 minutes to prepare to land and to bring the plane down and that's IF you are 20 minutes from the nearest airport. Look more towards a 45 minute to 1 hour flight time to the nearest airport.

We need to look at this story from a critical viewpoint - even with the oxygen would she have died anyway? With what sounds like she needed - High flow Oxygen, the two or three tanks would probably have been emptied out regardless.

Just remember one of the cardinal rules in medicine - All patients eventually die. It was just this woman's time to go.

You are missing one critical things in all of these cases that would have meant the difference between life and death. An ERDoc!

[Just Plain Ruff]

you are soooooo correct - Medics save lives, emt's save medics and er docs save the world.

[Schwaa]

Cause of death - No oxygen... pffft

Theres nothing like getting your story from a guy who is not a medical professional and has no idea what is going on besides that his cousin is dying and nothing is working, not even the "box"