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NEW YORK -
Struggling to breathe, American Airlines passenger
Carine Desir asked
for oxygen, but a flight attendant twice refused
her request, the woman's cousin said.
"Don't let me die," the
cousin, Antonio Oliver, recalled Desir saying
after the attendant
allegedly refused at first to administer the
oxygen Friday.
But Desir did die, Oliver said Sunday in a telephone
interview.
He said the flight attendant finally relented
but various medical devices on the plane failed,
including two oxygen tanks that were found to
be empty and what may have been a defibrillator
that seemed to malfunction.
American Airlines confirmed the flight death
and said medical professionals had tried to save
the woman. A spokeswoman for the airline, Sonja
Whitemon, wouldn't comment Sunday on Oliver's
claims of faulty medical equipment on the plane.
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 home
from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after she ate a meal,
according to Oliver, 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.
He said other passengers aboard Flight 896 became
agitated over the situation, 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.
Oliver said two doctors and two nurses were
aboard and tried to administer oxygen from a
second tank, which also was empty.
Desir, of New York City,
was placed on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR,
Oliver said. A "box," possibly
a defibrillator, also was applied but didn't function
effectively, he said.
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 collapsed and
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 John F. Kennedy International Airport, without
stopping in Miami. The woman's body was moved
to the floor of the first-class section and covered
with a blanket, Oliver said.
Shulkin, through his attorney, Justin Nadeau,
declined to comment on the incident.
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