Wow....

Woman dies during flight after being refused help - Los Angeles Times

That's awful. You know there's going to be a big law suit coming out of this one, too.

I saw a show a couple weeks ago, that was a sort of documentary on American Airlines. They said every ( I think 4???) years, the planes are gutted, and everything is replaced/refurbished, etc. Doesn't seem like much is done in the interim, tho, huh???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

How horrible that her family had to witness this.........not to mention all the other passengars. I bet those words haunt them for a long time "please don't let me die".......You would think that full oxygen tanks would be part of pre flight checks.

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Nicole

Sorry I am going to sound like Atilla the Hun, why is the Airline required to have oxygen onboard? It is not a hospital. This was a horrible incident.I just don't think that an Airline should be required to act as a hospital. These are flight attendants, not EMTs or paramedics or nurses. If she had a previous medical condition there is risk to fly. Just my honest opinion.

The oxygen tanks are part of the pre-flight checklist. If the plane doesn't have a minimum number of oxygen tanks working (the number varies by type of aircraft), it can't fly. Same for the defibrillator.

Let's keep in mind that the initial report of the allegedly empty oxygen tanks and broken defib (AED) came from the relatives, who probably weren't in the best frame of mind over this. From what I've read about AEDs, they don't work in all situations. It depends on the rhythm of the heart, according to this from one of the doctors on this flight:

Two emergency medical technicians performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Desir. Shulkin said he assisted with the use of a defibrillator, but that it wasn't successful because once the pads were applied, the rhythm of Desir's heartbeat "was not consistent with one that would respond to a shock."

Complete article here

You're right, they're not hospitals.
Neither is a school bus the fire dept. so why are they REQUIRED to carry operational fire estinguishers?
If your child was riding a bus and a fire broke out would you rather they sit and wait fir the fire truck?
If you are in an accident and the fire dept. arrives first, would you rather they save their oxygen and make you wait until you arrive at the hospital? JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT A HOSPITAL??????????

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Barb


My GOD Bless our Country and our Troops, and rid the World of terroists.

I heard a statement read on the news about this case. They said that there were in fact a dozen oxygen tanks onboard and that they were all operating properly. The intent of those tanks was not lifesaving in the event of an individual passenger having health issues, but rather as part of the entire emergency system of the plane - they were the tanks that would feed oxygen into the masks that would drop down in front of the passengers for which the flight attendants demonstrate proper use.

Because of the issues with her heart rate, the doctor (who was a passenger on the plane) knew that simply administering oxygen was not going to do anything for her. She didn't need oxygen because there wasn't enough oxygen in the plane's air - she needed oxygen because she was going into cardiac arrest and so her heart was not pumping her blood through her lungs. That's not an issue any oxygen tank can fix.

Apparently, though, the physician did try to do some manual procedure with the oxygen tanks, using them in a way entirely different than intended, and attempted to force oxygen oxygen into her lungs manually somehow. If the family saw him attempting something unusual with the O2 tanks, it wasn't because they weren't working or weren't full.

At least, that's what I heard on the news...

Barb, I don't think that rationale holds up. She's right - a plane is not a hospital. Is it good to have lifesaving equipment handy? You betcha. So how far do we take that? Are there kits equipped with tourniquets, defibrillators, ventilators, satellite phones, and flashlights? No. You can't prepare for every emergency, and from the sound of things, the airlines probably aren't required to be prepared for in-flight medical issues that relate to breathing trouble.

If a fire broke out on a bus, the kids would be evacuated and then the fire extinguisher would be used. Is there oxygen on a schoold bus? That is a more accurate analogy.Some emergencies cannot be planned for. It sounds as though this poor woman had mulitple issues. To put the blame on an airline or flight crew is looking for someone to blame. Sometimes there is no one. Crap happens. There are some risks when you fly. One of those being medical care is miles below on solid ground

This is what the article says. I find it very disturbing.



Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty on the Friday flight home from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after she ate a meal, according to Oliver, 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.

He said other passengers aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, 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.

Oliver said two doctors and two nurses were aboard and tried to administer oxygen from a second tank, which also was empty.

Desir was placed on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR, Oliver said. A "box," possibly a defibrillator, also was applied but didn't function effectively, he said.

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 collapsed and died, Oliver said.

Do you see a pattern here? LOL. This ENTIRE account is being given by one person and that person is the friend and traveling companion of the woman's brother. It will be the brother who files the multi-million dollar lawsuit so I wouldn't take his buddy's comments as gospel.

There's a huge tendency for friends and relatives of someone who's having a medical emergency to demand that something be done, even if it wouldn't help the patient, or it doesn't make sense, or would even harm the patient. Logically, I can't see a whole flight crew refusing medical help -- especially when it's so easy to sue someone.

And where it says "Other passengers became agitated...".... were those other passengers her relatives? I think the implication in the article is that the plane was in an uproar over the flight attendant's behavior, but my guess is that it was her family members who knew she had a medical condition that were the ones who were agitated.

Just think about it....being given air with a higher concentration of oxygen won't stop a heart attack. An oxygen tank could be beneficial for many things... but not that.