Relative Complains After Death on Flight-(A.A.- empty oxygen tank)

Source: Associated Press

Relative Complains After Death on Flight
By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008


(02-24) 19:15 PST NEW YORK, (AP) --
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.
Desir, who had heart disease, died of natural causes, medical examiner's office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday.

..snip
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.

..snip

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/24/national/a173115S73.DTL&tsp=1

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no comment, totally disgusted

They are gonna be SO sued. And for good reason.

but you knew that

only morons don't know that

That shouldn't be held to that standard......moron/not

10 seconds if it's on the pre-flight on a checklist



are you attacking me over this?

if low, schedule refill at destination if you can't fill it now.

of course, airlines and other large systems scream and whine about every single regulation, saying it will cost millions. meanwhile, this guy is dead, and it's going to cost them probably even more millions

you, someone you know, someone you're on the fucking airplane with? can you imagine that happening to ANYONE?

NT!

the story says she "died of natural causes"



:wtf:

Carrying EMPTY emergency oxygen?

Oh yeah, American Airlines should be sued till they're empty.

where they have a sprinkler system that doesn't work, exit doors that are kept locked, a fire alarm that is disconnected, security cameras that aren't hooked up.

The question is whether it would have mattered if they did have oxygen. Otherwise, if the lack of oxygen was not a cause of the death, then it doesn't matter in terms of liability.

just a flight to whereever I purchased a ticket to.

It would be nice if they could supply oxygen for a sick passenger, but to expect and sue if they don't, seems like too much is expected IMHO. OTOH, if the plane were crashing and the oxygen did not work, that's another story--it is expected to work in that instance.

Am I missing something?

it is mandatory to have on board--(why do you expect so little if you need help? they have you up in the air and people can experience various types of problems breathing--perhaps that even the passenger was unaware of having before the flight)

read a few of these posts:

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/3860646/1/

from the posts here it sounds like defibulators are mandatory as is supplemental bottles of oxygen

"Defibs are. As is O2. Extra (or supplemental O2) is found in POBs (portable oxygeb bottles). They are required for numerous reasons.
I smell something very fishy here and we are only getting one side here

"Roger that. Flightaware shows it as an A300, and while I don't know the specific number of portable oxygen bottles (POBs) required to be usuable, it's definitely more than two reportedly tried. As a guide, a 737 has 4 POBs, and given the larger capacity of an A300, I'd expect more than 4 being required, so there should have been others to try..

"Very fishy. At my airline not having a portable O2 container at 100% is good enough reason for not dispatching a plane. I file reports every day concerning pax that need O2, and our F/As ALWAYS administer it, no matter how minor the health issue may seem.

"Isn't that a check item for the FA's before flight? I can recall a few times flights being delayed due to the fact that the seal on the first aid kits were busted. If this turns out to be an accurate news story, this has to be up there as one of the dumbest mistakes a crew can make. Also rather cruel to deny assistance. I hate lawsuits and I hate the legal process in this country, but I will chalk this one up for a righteous lawsuit, once again if it is true.

"You will have one POB per crew member (flight attendants, that is) in the cabin, at the very least.

"I concur... I can't imagine any circumstance in which a flight attendant would refuse a passenger who clearly needed oxygen, unless it was prior to departure. As far as an empty oxygen bottle, I can't fathom that being the case (and yes there would be numerous POBs, especially on an A300).

"When I was flying, we didn't have defibs, but we damn sure had O2

"So, just rereading the full AP story, it claims there were TWO empty O2 bottles, and the defib was inoperative. There's just no way. Huge holes in this story.

"Even still, you give it till assistance arrives at the gate.

Only way you are going to get from point A to point B.

And because the airlines now use re-circulated air (it saves them money - but I have never figured out how having air filtration machinery working wouldn't be just as cheap) people with asthma are at high risk.

Airlines are always rather negligent about the issue of asthmatic patients -even before 9/11, asthmatics would be accused of being disruptive terrorists when it is just that the asthma makes them act weird.

The Airlines have de-fibulators at hand, and I don't see why they can't have oxygen tanks that work.

And all planes have defibrillators. No one with a heart condition would get on a plane if they knew they would be in the air for hours with no O2 and no defibrillator and who would fly at all if they though they would die if the plane had an air leak because there was no emergency O2 on board?

first off there are many more than 2 O2 bottles on a A300..and all crew do pre-flight check of O2 bottles..and check the defibrillator..AA was the first carrier to carry the defibulator ..and long before it was mandatory. They are expensive pieces of equip and are kept in pristine condition.
Crew are trained to administer Oxygen very cautiously..it is dangerous as it is under pressure..and many people will ask for it that do not need it ..many people with a bit of anxiety have a hard time breathing..
i am not saying this scenerio couldn't have happened..it just sounds fishy.

There are more than one type of O2 bottles on that aircraft..i won't give specifics as that is a security detail..but like i said this sounds awful fishy.

fly

Let's assume all was kosher for a moment (even though we know that wasn't the case- bear with me, please). Let's assume all things were equal, which they wouldn't have known wasn't the case when the passenger started having difficulty breathing.

We know from the info above that airlines carry supplemental oxygen. They have to be prepared for a medical emergency inflight; it wouldn't surprise me if some long flights carry a store of insulin, for example, "just in case". They have a "box", probably a defibrillator.

So why was the flight attendant reluctant to even try to help?

The other passenger stated that the woman was diabetic and needed oxygen. The stewardess replied that oxygen wasn't a normal treatment for persons having diabetic issues (unless she had chronic breathing problems, in which case she would have had her OWN oxygen). The stewardess then went forward to try and get someone to help figure out what was going on.

Thing is, the stewardess was technically right. Someone having a diabetes related issue wouldn't normally need oxygen. Since O2 is highly flammable and O2 bottles are explosive, they're not going to hand them out unless they're genuinely needed. The airline also claims that the statement about the bottles being empty is untrue.

This article doesn't mention it, but there was actually a doctor on board who called her time of death and tried to save her life. If the bottles were empty, he'd say so.