NEW YORK — An American Airlines passenger died after a flight attendant told her he couldn’t give her oxygen and then tried to help her with faulty equipment, including an empty oxygen tank, a relative said.
The airline confirmed the death and said medical professionals had tried to save passenger Carine Desir, 44, 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 thirsty on the Friday flight from Port- au-Prince, said 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.
Desir 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, but it was empty.
Two doctors and two nurses aboard 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.
“Her last words were, ‘I cannot breathe,’ ” Oliver said.
One of the doctors pronounced Desir dead, and the flight continued to Kennedy International Airport without stopping in Miami, with the body moved to the floor of the first-class section and covered with a blanket, Oliver said.
