RSSWoman Dies On Flight With Bad Oxygen Tanks
Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | February 25, 2008
Faulty Equipment May Have Contributed To Passenger’s Death On Flight From Haiti To 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.
The airline confirmed the flight death and said medical professionals had tried to save the passenger, Carine Desir, who was returning home to New York 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.
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