QUITE FRANKLY, I find this story very disturbing. If someone asks for oxygen, I see no reason, why it cannot be administered and then to have faulty equipment on board is even more ridiculous. A desperate woman's plea goes unheard and she dies on the flight.
I do not want to play the card that I have so often witnessed myself: the card where Haitians and other Caribbean, Pacific and Asian people are not noticed, but if they were otherwise situated, shall we say, they get the attention they ask for.
Read on and tell me what you think. Were it me, I would have long filed a lawsuit for negligence. I don't know tort law but I see causality and a lack of duty of care in there somewhere. Then the airlines use "jurisdiction" to get out of situations.
I should know. I sued AA a few years ago.
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 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.
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3 comments:
Howaida Moussa Weel comments:
I think your thoughts are of pure merit. However, most west indians of arab descent are first or second generation and subsequently have no definitive ties to their mother countries nor do they speak the language. All of them are also Christian Catholics and their fore-fathers would have been part of the christian diaspora that immigrated out of the middle-east because of islamic prejudice and persecution. I think they have no interest in much outside of the region and would prefer to leave it behind. They are too busy integrating to really care. I believe this is perhaps the reason why caribbean journalism does not look upon the subject as a lucrative one and would justify them not to bother.
Islamic commentary from within the caribbean is a subject that is politically best unheard. No matter how much they might like to assure you that all muslims are not the same, in their heart of hearts and central to their belief is the jihad. In christianity one of the ten commandments is you shall not kill. A fundamental difference they cannot deny. Its best left alone and given no airtime. I think society would prefer that.
Please note, most islamic states deny entry to christians and women. If you have the privilege of being allowed to enter their country, you have to wear the veil and abbaya. Their women cannot get a passport or visa to leave their country without the written permission of the father or husband. Many books authored by Jean Sasson deal with this in detail. The atrocities are countless. After investigating the forbidden truth of islam, I think you might perhaps change your mind about promoting their cause or exposing them further to the wrath of our western society. For their own good and as a cautionary measure of security perhaps it would be best for them to remain silent on our airwaves.
Just my thoughts on your eloquent renderings.
best always
Howaida
My response to Howaida:
Happy New Year Howaida,
I did not study Islamic/Judaism Studies at SOAS, UK. I wish I did now.
That said, I believe that most of what you said might be true but journalism still behooves us to ask questions even if they cannot be answered. If journalism is only to be "lucrative, then I want no part of it. The tenets of journalism do not mention money-making though one must buy a paper or subscribe on the net, but that is not the raison d'etre of our profession.
The Muslims I met are peace loving, just as the Jewish people I have met both in Barbados and elsewhere are equally peace loving. The Jihadists are just an unfortunate FUNDAMENTALIST faction just as they are fundamentalist factions within the Jewish system and Christian religions - look at the Mormons, look at the Amish people, look at the Fundamentalist group in Utah and Texas who rape their own children and force them to marry men three times their ages, look at polygamy - all against the TEN COMMANDMENTS.
It is a historical issue , which you so eloquently defended.
However, as a Christian myself, the Bible states thou shalt not kill, the Bible comes down from Judaism (as one who studied theology I say this with authority) and the Israelis are killing as we speak. They are breaking the same commandment as the same one in the Koran. The Palestinians, Taliban and other Fundamentalists are all wrong! I just do not follow the herd instinct. I must dissect the facts as I see them from both sides.
This is all I am saying. I am not defending the Muslims or the Jews. I find it sad that after thousands of years fighting over land, religion and one up-manship, that these people cannot get their act together for the sake of their children, at the very least and I know you are a mom.
Burying one's head under a carpet never works. Hiding is denial. I am very close to the Syrian/Lebanese community and indeed to Michel Mansoor and many others, the Eliases and countless others. I am their family but at the same time, I am family to Goldie Spieler and David Spieler and Jay Sachnoff and Peter Dershowitz and the list goes on. I have read of the atrocities in the Western Media, yet other journalists from the same West can tell me that what we hear out of the Arab countries is NOT SO in every case. Look at Queen Noor and Jordan. I am not saying that atrocities do not exist. They exist in Mugabe's rule, Darfur, remember Uganda, RWAANDA, political violence in Jamaica and the list goes on.
As a Christian, a confirmed catholic and strangely, a confirmed Anglican, (I attend St Patrick's and/or St James Parish Church - God is God), I refuse to fly in the face of God and denounce my neighbour because he does not share my view or religion or kill him even. THAT IS ABSURD! I might add, the US makes Cuba sound like a dead zone of complete and utter destruction and lingering DESPAIR of its people. I went to Cuba last year, and they are very happy save a few dissidents. Yes they need aid but ask the US why it wants to bully everwhere? This is how the embargo and the threatened assassination of Fidel Castro came about. And they then argue that the places are dictatorships, my personal view is this: if they want to be dictated, let them live in that state. Unless INVITED, the US should stay out and I say that as a born and bred member of the EU. Imposing an ideology on a people who are not ready or willing to accept it, makes no sense and leads to occupation and war. IT MUST STOP! I don't care who does it.
So it is a matter of truth and perspective and one's perception is one's reality, so I respect your views.
God Bless You
Keep writing
Kim
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