Woman dies during flight after being refused help
Alan Diaz / Associated Press
American Airlines MD-80 jet sits on the tarmac as fire rescue workers check
the passenger plane at Miami International Airport.
Los Angeles Times
From the Associated Press
February 25, 2008
NEW YORK -- 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.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-flightdeath25feb25,0,18
77899.story
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