Woman dies while in-flight; Airline disputes relative's tale

[SWTXBelle]

Are there federal "Good Samaritan" laws?

[pbear19]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

Are there federal "Good Samaritan" laws?

I had to dig up my book from my CPR class (which I just renewed two months ago so it is a newly printed book), the Good Samaritan laws are state laws. There is a law in all 50 states, varying slightly by state. I have no idea how the law is applied however in a flight from Haiti to NY.

The one thing I always took away from the GS laws is that you are expected to act 'within the scope' of your training. In other words, if you have only seen CPR done on TV and you break someone's ribs while attempting to mimic, you most likely would not be protected. That I think is something many people wouldn't be aware of.

Sorry for the slight hijack...

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by pbear19

I had to dig up my book from my CPR class (which I just renewed two months ago so it is a newly printed book), the Good Samaritan laws are state laws. There is a law in all 50 states, varying slightly by state. I have no idea how the law is applied however in a flight from Haiti to NY.

The one thing I always took away from the GS laws is that you are expected to act 'within the scope' of your training. In other words, if you have only seen CPR done on TV and you break someone's ribs while attempting to mimic, you most likely would not be protected. That I think is something many people wouldn't be aware of.

Sorry for the slight hijack...

thanks for the info.. i wasn't sure if anything like that would exist to protect those who tried to help.

[AXi1257]

I see dead bodies all the time so I could sit in first class without a problem. Oh yeah- I'm a critical care RN so I'm around acutely ill people all the time and have coded so many I don't even have a guess at a number.

On a serious note- You need a shockable rhythm to have an AED function- that means V-tach or V-fib. If you're in a heart block, PEA, asystole, SVT, etc it is of no use. I wouldn't expect flight attendants to know how to 'save a life' other than basic CPR including use of the AED. Oxygen would not have saved this woman's life. I'm sure an investigation will occur, but their shouldn't be a lawsuit. At least I wouldn't award them damages.

[AKA_Monet]

Wow! We know so little of the passengers preboard health... We have no clear indication what her problems were in-flight other than the first-responders. She also could have had embolism or a stroke... Did the healthcare worker hear her heart rhythms? And I agree with the others, AED may have done very little without essential EMT equipment. The article stated she was a diabetic, she could have been going into post-prandial glucose shock which would have also caused heart palpitations and sometimes inability to breathe. The flight attendants did make the call to deliver O2 and although O2 may have not given her relief neither did defib. A 44 year old diabetic woman could have had silent myocardial ischemia leading to cardiac arrest... The riskiest thing to do to her is cool her down. But only a cardiologist should make that call...

[PeppyGPhiB]

According to the airline, the plane had 12 oxygen tanks on board. Twelve seems excessive to me, but by law they are required to have at least two. All involved say that the oxygen tanks were used. The family member being quoted obviously does not understand the ins-and-outs of CPR and defibs...he referred to the defib. as a "box" to the investigators and told people none of the tanks or the "box" worked. What he doesn't seem to be grasping is that they just didn't work on his relative.

[Kevlar281]

It’s amazing how many people think that if someone’s heart stops, they stop breathing or both they will be revived with CPR or an AED. It’s not an absolute but unfortunately TV has perpetuated this mindset. I’d say the biggest culprit is/was Baywatch. It seemed like every drowning victim was revived after a few seconds of CPR/Rescue Breathing on that stupid show. Well enough of that rant. Who knows what was going on in that situation but if she had stopped breathing and her heart had stopped the best thing they could do was provide CPR to keep blood and oxygen flow to her vital systems until they could get her to proper facilities. It sounds like the relative was expecting spontaneous consciousness.

Here is an interesting article about how TV shows have changed the public’s perception about effectiveness of CPR and other lifesaving measures.

[pbear19]

Originally Posted by Kevlar281

It’s amazing how many people think that if someone’s heart stops, they stop breathing or both they will be revived with CPR or an AED.

I hugely agree with this, it's actually the first thing I thought of when I read this. CPR is hardly ever effective, AED only marginally more so. I've been trained that the breathing portion of CPR is of minimal value, that if you cannot come to terms with putting your mouth over a stranger's mouth that the chest compressions alone will be almost the same as compressions with breaths.

Current CPR training is 30 chest compressions to 2 rescue breaths, but on TV it's maybe 5 to 5. And of course, anyone whose heart stops, no matter for how long, seems to live on TV. I lost a close family member a bit over a year ago after his heart stopped. He was finally revived, but it was too late, his brain was gone. Of course a couple days later I saw someone on TV fully recover after an almost identical situation. It just doesn't work that way in real life.