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

[Tom Earp]

American Airlines says they did nothing wrong!

Makes me want to fly them, NOT!

How in the heck can oxygen bottles be empty?

Something is wrong with this picture!

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

American Airlines says they did nothing wrong!

Makes me want to fly them, NOT!

How in the heck can oxygen bottles be empty?

Something is wrong with this picture!

I doubt that the tanks were empty. Like Peppy said, the relative didn't seem to understand what was going on, all the knew was that the two different oxygen tanks they tried and the "box" didn't help the woman.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

I doubt that the tanks were empty. Like Peppy said, the relative didn't seem to understand what was going on, all the knew was that the two different oxygen tanks they tried and the "box" didn't help the woman.

Point well taken!

Eye witnesses can see things differently of course.

But, the question would be the timing of lack of help in a proper manner.

She may have already have been deceased.

CPR has changed from the old 5-3 as I was trained with the Ski Patrol and is now more breaths to compressions.

So, who is going to admit who was in error?

[ZTABullwinkle]

The part in the article Dolphin linked to had a quote that concerned me.

Carine Desir, 44, was pronounced dead Friday on a nearly full Haiti-to-New York flight by a pediatrician 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.

Maybe I am reading into it too much, but this is what I know of AEDs. They look for a "shockable" rhythm (usually pulseless v-tavh or v-fib). It will not shock if it is "asystole" (flat line). So, I wonder what the actual rhythm was that it didn't work.

[jon1856]

Dealing with death at 30,000 feet

In-flight fatalities give passengers an up-close view of human frailty

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23395706/
NEW YORK - When Rubina Husain's husband died aboard an airliner, she shielded her 10-year-old daughter's eyes so she wouldn't see her daddy's body carried through the cabin.
Then, with the corpse covered up and tucked away in a rear galley, the passengers who had stood around and stared after the man collapsed returned to eating and chatting. The Athens-to-New York jetliner continued on to its destination for eight or nine more hours. And the in-flight movie was shown as planned.
"It felt like a never-ending flight," says Husain, whose husband died in 1998 after an asthma attack. "I felt like: Why doesn't this plane just crash and kill me? Why don't I just die?"...........

F/U to original posting:
......."Decades ago, in the early days of commercial flight, all stewardesses were nurses. Now, the FAA mandates that flight attendants receive non-professional-level training in such methods as CPR, but they are not required to be able to use the syringes and intravenous drips in onboard medical kits.
Northwest said that doctors, nurses or paramedics are aboard an estimated 96 percent of its flights. MedAire said medical professionals stepped forward to help in 48 percent of the more than 17,000 medical situations it was called on to help with last year."......
"Desir's husband and two children, ages 23 and 10, have hired a law firm to investigate the death of the Brooklyn nurse.
"My wife died on the plane," her husband, Mario Fontus, told The Associated Press. "And I want to know what happened on that plane."
Airline defends response after in-flight death

Relative claimed faulty gear; American said flight crew ‘acted admirably’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23327116/

[PeppyGPhiB]

Can you imagine having to sit on a flight for 8-9 hours after your spouse has died and been stuffed somewhere else "convenient" on the plane? That must be horrid.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Can you imagine having to sit on a flight for 8-9 hours after your spouse has died and been stuffed somewhere else "convenient" on the plane? That must be horrid.

I agree. I don't know how they should handle it to do it better because, no matter what, it's going to be awful.

I suppose knowing that it's horrible for the family no matter what, they try to minimize the event for everyone else.