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Airline defends crew after death
26/02/2008 12:20 - (SA)
New York - American Airlines has defended its staff as professional and its equipment as sound on Monday after a swift review of a passenger's in-flight death, despite her family's claims that the crew ignored her pleas until it was too late.
Carine Desir, 44, was pronounced dead on Friday on a nearly full Haiti-to-New York flight by a paediatrician who said he tried to use the plane's defibrillator on her as she faded, but her pulse was already too weak for it to work.
The doctor, Joel Shulkin, was one of several medical professionals who stepped in after flight attendants asked if any were on board. Shulkin said through his attorney, Justin Nadeau, that two emergency medical technicians performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Desir, a diabetic.
Sitting in the 10th row, four rows back from first class, Desir had complained of not feeling well and being very thirsty after she ate a meal on the flight home from Port-au-Prince to John F Kennedy International Airport, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was travelling with her, and her brother. A flight attendant brought water to her, he said.
'Don't let me die'
A few minutes later, Desir, herself a nurse, said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, Oliver said. "Don't let me die," he recalled her saying.
But a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said.
Airline spokesperson Charley Wilson said Desir's cousin flagged down a flight attendant and said Desir had diabetes and needed oxygen. "The flight attendant responded, 'OK, but we usually don't need to treat diabetes with oxygen, but let me check anyway and get back to you,"' Wilson said.
The employee spoke with another flight attendant, and both went to Desir within three minutes, according to Wilson.
"By that time the situation was worsening, and they immediately began administering oxygen," he said.
Defibrillator
Oliver said other passengers - the 267-seat Airbus A300 was carrying 263, the airline said - aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, and the flight attendant tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty. Shulkin could not confirm whether the oxygen was flowing, his attorney said.
"It was working, and the defibrillator was applied as well," Wilson said.
An automated external defibrillator delivers an electric shock to try to restore a normal heart rhythm if a particular type of irregular heart beat is detected. The machines cannot help in all cases.
Wilson and Shulkin said the defibrillator indicated Desir's heartbeat was too weak for the unit to work.
Oliver said he 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.
"Her last words were, 'I cannot breathe,"' he said.
- AP
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