News, American Airlines Passenger Dies After Being Treated With Reportedly Empty Oxygen Tank. (overnight, flight)

[John1960]

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.

FOXNews.com - American Airlines Passenger Dies After Being Treated With Empty Oxygen Tank - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

[South Range Family]

I was expecting this article to be posted. First let me say that I am not affiliated with American Airlines. I work for their competition. American is a very good airline with a top notch maintenance team. I don't believe for a minute that those bottles were empty, or that the defibrillator didn't work. All of the articles being written are going on information from a distraught relative. He didn't know what a defibrillator was called, let alone how it works. All of the articles written used words like "didn't appear to be working" or, "seemingly wasn't working". I'm sure that American's maintenance procedures are just like ours. We check our emergency equipment on every overnight and weekly check.

On the defibrillator, we check the date, the battery charge, and initiate a self test. It talks to you and says test ok. We also check the replacement date, and pressure on the oxygen bottles. There is a round gauge that is very clearly marked. When the flight attendant popped the bottle from it's mount, she would have instantly known if it was empty. She had 12 bottles to choose from. They are about 4 inches in diameter and about 8 inches tall. There is a mask already plugged in, and a spare mask attached to the bottle. Standard procedure is to make a logbook entry if a bottle is used. The log is checked after every flight. Sound is different in a pressurized plane. There is outside engine noise, and there is air hissing from all of the vents and punka louvres. There is no way the cousin could hear oxygen coming from the bottles.

The doctors are smart about keeping their mouths shut. When they jumped in there to help, they opened themselves up to be sued too. A good friend of mine is a malpractice defense attorney. I'm sure he would have advised them to make no statements until it is time for official testimony. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. Until then, I believe that American Airlines is the victim of a media witch hunt.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by South Range Family

I was expecting this article to be posted. First let me say that I am not affiliated with American Airlines. I work for their competition. American is a very good airline with a top notch maintenance team. I don't believe for a minute that those bottles were empty, or that the defibrillator didn't work. All of the articles being written are going on information from a distraught relative. He didn't know what a defibrillator was called, let alone how it works. All of the articles written used words like "didn't appear to be working" or, "seemingly wasn't working". I'm sure that American's maintenance procedures are just like ours. We check our emergency equipment on every overnight and weekly check.

On the defibrillator, we check the date, the battery charge, and initiate a self test. It talks to you and says test ok. We also check the replacement date, and pressure on the oxygen bottles. There is a round gauge that is very clearly marked. When the flight attendant popped the bottle from it's mount, she would have instantly known if it was empty. She had 12 bottles to choose from. They are about 4 inches in diameter and about 8 inches tall. There is a mask already plugged in, and a spare mask attached to the bottle. Standard procedure is to make a logbook entry if a bottle is used. The log is checked after every flight. Sound is different in a pressurized plane. There is outside engine noise, and there is air hissing from all of the vents and punka louvres. There is no way the cousin could hear oxygen coming from the bottles.

The doctors are smart about keeping their mouths shut. When they jumped in there to help, they opened themselves up to be sued too. A good friend of mine is a malpractice defense attorney. I'm sure he would have advised them to make no statements until it is time for official testimony. I'll be interested to see how this plays out. Until then, I believe that American Airlines is the victim of a media witch hunt.

I too thought it rather odd that ALL of the oxygen bottles would be empty AND the defib not working. What are the odds of that? As a person that DOES work in the gas business and deals w/ medical oxygen South Range Family is correct that there IS a gauge attached to the nozzle of the cylinder. This will CLEARLY show how much pressure is in the cylinder once it is turned on. As the SRF also stated w/ as much noise as there is inside of a plane one will NOT hear the oxygen tank "hissing". You won't hear ANYTHING in MOST cases even with a FULL bottle of gas. Only if it is LEAKING will you most likely hear some kind of hissing noise. If one is talking and a lot of commotion is going on you won't even be able to hear a small leak much less the oxygen being used if no leak. The noise is minimial.

I think there is more to this story than what is being said. Of course they are upset their relative passed away. Who would not be. She very well could have had the same thing happen to her in a grocery store, mall, at work, etc and in those places there is usually NOT ONE oxygen tank for emergencies much less a defib.

[tande1n5]

The flight, if I'm not mistaken was using an A300 as equipment.... would definitely be many more bottles... definitely only seeing one side of the story here. The fact is that media is usually doing "well" when they get half of the facts correct in an aviation related story.

[Sweetbeet]

First of all, a defibrillator can only treat certain specific conditions - ventricular fibrillation (v-fib) or v-tach (ventricular tachycardia). Not everyone who is having a 'heart attack' or cardiac arrest has one of those heart rhythms. It is very possible that the AED (defibrillator) was working properly, but that its limited function was not able to help the patient. In a situation like an airplane there is very little that can be done for a person who goes into sudden cardiac arrest. Even if the AED had managed to shock her into a stable heart rhythm (which it could only do if she was in v-fib or v-tach), without drugs and assistance in breathing, she would likely have died anyway. If she had a very sudden cardiac arrest she might have been in asystole (no heart rhythm at all), which an AED would read as "not a shockable rhythm". Its porper function in that situation would be simply to inform the operator that the patient is not shockable, and to continue CPR (which also wouldn't save her).

If she was having difficulty breathing the mere provision of oxygen might not have helped much either. She would have needed to have artificial respiration, via a bag valve mask, either applied to her face or through tracheal intubation. Without a paramedic (or perhaps a doctor), and proper equipment, there is very little that can be done for someone who has suffered a sudden cardiac event, or sudden massive stroke.

I wonder what had actually happened to this woman? Perhaps she had an allergic reaction to something she had eaten, causing anaphylactic shock and swelling of her throat. That can stop breathing. Did anyone have or attempt to administer an epi-pen, I wonder? Without a history of allergy perhaps no one thought of this. Or a sudden cardiac event. Or???

Now that I think about this, I think next time I fly I am going to tell the flight attendant that I a trained EMT. I have never done this because I figured there is really not that much that a basic EMT (not a paramedic) can do, and that the flight crew probably has almost as much training as I do. But we are trained to deal with this kind of emergency, and not all doctors (ER physicians aside, but even they are used to working in a fully-stocked hospital setting, not in the field).