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Family suing American Airlines over death of 25-year-old woman
A family from South Carolina has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against American Airlines after a 25-year-old woman suffered an embolism midflight. Brittany Oswell, a nurse from the Midlands area, was flying home from Hawaii with her husband Cory on American Airlines flight A102 on April 16, 2016, when she began to feel “dizzy and disoriented” and ultimately fainted. A doctor aboard the flight spoke with Oswell after she regained consciousness and initially believed she was suffering from a… (www.foxnews.com) Altro...
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This has been a relatively unknown problem for years affecting even younger people who sit too long. When I read about the new 20-hour flight NYC to Singapore, it comes up. Airlines are going to find that they will have to get everybody out of their seat every hour or so to do a daisy chain around the plane which, hopefully, has two aisles. This problem has been building up, and now it becomes a crisis for young and old. SITTING IN A CHAIR FOR 20 HOURS IS VERY DANGEROUS.
Humm let me think on this a bit. Ok The annual rate of rupture is approximately 8 – 10 per 100,000 people or about 30,000 people in the United States suffer a brain aneurysm rupture. ... Ruptured brain aneurysms are fatal in about 40% of cases. Of those who survive, about 66% suffer some permanent neurological deficit. A lot depends on the type of aneurism you may have as to the likelihood of death.
I think in this instance even at trained doctor on board did not recognize the woman as having an aneurism immediately. the pilot never saw the woman so he could only act on the doctors recommendation and he did not know that doctor either.
All this being said we will never know if the woman would have survived had the pilot landed immediately. Or if perhaps she would have died anyway.
This is something a jury will have a long time to deliberate on it ever gets to trial. My guess is the insurance company for the airline will settle out of court.
Unfortunately inflight emergency's do happen and we do not know the medical condition of everyone that boards an aircraft. In this case it was pilots discretion and company policy that dictated his actions. We will all have to just watch the news and see in time what happens.
One poster mentions getting everyone out of their seat every few hours. But even that is a safety concern as you can hit turbulence at any time and a cabin of unseat belted passengers can end in some very bad results. If a rapid decent were necessary that would create havoc tossing people around the cabin into one another as well as windows and doors. Just is no easy answer all the way around.
I think in this instance even at trained doctor on board did not recognize the woman as having an aneurism immediately. the pilot never saw the woman so he could only act on the doctors recommendation and he did not know that doctor either.
All this being said we will never know if the woman would have survived had the pilot landed immediately. Or if perhaps she would have died anyway.
This is something a jury will have a long time to deliberate on it ever gets to trial. My guess is the insurance company for the airline will settle out of court.
Unfortunately inflight emergency's do happen and we do not know the medical condition of everyone that boards an aircraft. In this case it was pilots discretion and company policy that dictated his actions. We will all have to just watch the news and see in time what happens.
One poster mentions getting everyone out of their seat every few hours. But even that is a safety concern as you can hit turbulence at any time and a cabin of unseat belted passengers can end in some very bad results. If a rapid decent were necessary that would create havoc tossing people around the cabin into one another as well as windows and doors. Just is no easy answer all the way around.
Not an aneurism ( weak blood vessel that bursts) it apparently was a pulmanory embolism ( blood clot that most likely blocked blood flow to either the heart or lung) resulting in a heart attack. A bad or weak heart valve could have caused the blood to pool in the heart and clot. Too bad the medical equipment as such were not in working order.
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There is more to the story. The doctor on board the aircraft then gave her a shot of epinephrine to try to revive her but it did not work.
When the plane landed in Dallas at 8.40am, she was taken straight to hospital by emergency staff.
Once there, doctors noted huge brain damage caused by the cardiac arrest and embolism.
She suffered a second embolism while in the hospital and on April 18, was declared dead.
We will have to wait and see what happens with the case. It is over two years old now and has gone non where. This happened in April of 2016. As I said before my bet is it is settled out of court by the insurance company and goes quietly away.
When the plane landed in Dallas at 8.40am, she was taken straight to hospital by emergency staff.
Once there, doctors noted huge brain damage caused by the cardiac arrest and embolism.
She suffered a second embolism while in the hospital and on April 18, was declared dead.
We will have to wait and see what happens with the case. It is over two years old now and has gone non where. This happened in April of 2016. As I said before my bet is it is settled out of court by the insurance company and goes quietly away.
I assume that when they say a Doctor was on board, they meant a medical Doctor. I know that seems snarky, but I raise this because if the statements on the medical equipment failed.
The timeline indicates the Doctor cold have been trying to get a BP at the time the patient went into cardiac arrest. In that case, you will get an error message on a digital BP cuff. Secondly, AEDs do DO NOT shock unless it detects the heart is in V-tach or V-fib. All other rhythms are non-shockable events. A ‘Doctor’ would know that and I doubt if AA caries LifePac units (while more versatile, are very expensive and heavy, and require extensive training to use).
Before jumping to conclusions, let’s get all the facts and then make an assessment based on logic, not knee jerk reactions to emotional reactions on statements made and possible non-fact based perceptions.
The timeline indicates the Doctor cold have been trying to get a BP at the time the patient went into cardiac arrest. In that case, you will get an error message on a digital BP cuff. Secondly, AEDs do DO NOT shock unless it detects the heart is in V-tach or V-fib. All other rhythms are non-shockable events. A ‘Doctor’ would know that and I doubt if AA caries LifePac units (while more versatile, are very expensive and heavy, and require extensive training to use).
Before jumping to conclusions, let’s get all the facts and then make an assessment based on logic, not knee jerk reactions to emotional reactions on statements made and possible non-fact based perceptions.
iPhone and fat fingers lead to typos: sorry
I agree we do not know everything that went occurred on board the airplane or the reason why the pilot delayed getting immediate medical assistance. My wife and I got in a heated argument last night over this very thread. She is of the opinion that the pilot should not have delayed in getting the immediate medical assistance for the woman and I can see how on a jury some folks would be inclined to agree with my wife.
I am sitting back and waiting myself before I decide to pass my own judgment on this issue. Some of the other things that came up in my wife and my own conversation had more to do with the liability a doctor would fall into if he or she tried to render aid onboard an aircraft and how a good Samaritan law might effect hurt or help him or her if the person dies which this one did shortly after being injected with epinephrine by the (doctor on the flight). A doctor takes an oath to do no more harm. An oath is not punishable by law and only one state that I know of which is Minnesota and no where near where this plane was has a criminal offense assigned to it if a person does not help or at least try and call for help. Again I am like you not knowing if this guy was a proctologist or a zit pooper or maybe they was a doctor of spiritual beliefs and that requires no medical training at all so we wait and see.
I am sitting back and waiting myself before I decide to pass my own judgment on this issue. Some of the other things that came up in my wife and my own conversation had more to do with the liability a doctor would fall into if he or she tried to render aid onboard an aircraft and how a good Samaritan law might effect hurt or help him or her if the person dies which this one did shortly after being injected with epinephrine by the (doctor on the flight). A doctor takes an oath to do no more harm. An oath is not punishable by law and only one state that I know of which is Minnesota and no where near where this plane was has a criminal offense assigned to it if a person does not help or at least try and call for help. Again I am like you not knowing if this guy was a proctologist or a zit pooper or maybe they was a doctor of spiritual beliefs and that requires no medical training at all so we wait and see.
My improper English has absolutely nothing to do with spell check or big fingers there is just no way to correct or delete it once you hit the send button so it is what it is. I think we all can understand it but you can take points off for grammar and I promise not to cry. Well not in public anyway. lol
