Have any of you heard about this? Apparently, this 44 year old woman with a heart condition was having trouble breathing. She called the flight attendant for some way to get oxygen, but she was denied twice, before the attendant decided to call upon the pilot to see what to do.

They tried administering oxygen to her, but the two tanks they had were empty. Luckily there were doctors and nurses aboard the flight, and they were planning on cutting the flight short and stopping in Florida. The lady was hooked up what could presumably be an AED (Automated External Defribillator), which did nothing. This is not exactly a surprise, since the AED could have been reading her as “normal”, so did not do anything. Unfortunately, the woman did not make it, and was pronounced dead by one of the doctors. The flight resumed their course for New York, covering her body and laying her down in the First Class area. (presumably out of view of course)

So what’s up with this? The oxygen tanks were empty? How is this possible? I would imagine that attendants would have a preflight check, and check these things. I recall when I worked in the ICU, I had to do a Crash Cart check upon beginning my shift. This should not have happened.

It’s conceivable that the lady would have survived if she had been given oxygen. However, without knowing her condition, or the circumstances who can say. This is definitely one for the courts. But I think we can easily blame the Airlines for not having oxygen in those tanks. Unless there are things that I don’t know about in the airline code or whatever.

Do you think the Airlines was in fault?