An elderly man dies in WestJet flight from Hawaii to Calgary. The man was found in medical distress and it took about 10 minutes for flight crews to locate the defibrillator. Questions are asked on how prepared the flight crews of the airlines in managing medical emergencies after the death of the elderly man.
Distress on the air
A late night flight from Honolulu was scheduled to land in Calgary in the morning. According to a witness, during the flight, flight attendants were overheard asking passengers if there was a nurse or a doctor on board. Finally, a woman passenger on the plane identified herself as a nurse.
Flight crew attendants led the woman to the passenger who is seated in the middle of a row. The man was about in his 80’s. She asked help from the crew to transfer the man on the floor. She immediately provided CPR on the man. The woman asked for an AED or an automated external defibrillator. An AED is not yet available, and flight crews can be seen searching on overhead bins. It was about 10 minutes before the defibrillator was finally found.
If defibrillation and CPR are delivered in the first few minutes after the attack, there is a possibility that it can double the survival rate of a person in cardiac arrest. It was not determined whether an AED would have helped in this incident.
It was learned that CPR was provided for more than 30 minutes before the man was determined had died. The body of the dead man was transferred into a seat and secured there until the plane landed.
Paramedics and Calgary Emergency Medical Services immediately responded to the flight once it landed at the airport and declared dead the elderly man on board.
Spokesperson of WestJet airlines confirmed that there was a medical emergency on the flight. They provided CPR and utilized the AED with the assistance of a nurse on board the plane. The airlines are equipped with an emergency kit and a MEDaire satellite phone that has direct access to emergency doctors and an AED. They are beyond what is required by the regulator.
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Learn how to help by enrolling in a CPR and AED class and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/first-aid/cpr