Korean Denies Dying Woman Seat
 

Finally a story that apparently has nothing to do with terrorists!

I can tell you that I have taken a dying man from JFK to DXB once and I will never do it again. The man had doctor notes and clearances, but the flight was a nightmare. We were in almost constant contact with Medlink and had a couple of onboard doctors looking after him the whole way. It wasn't fair to the other passengers for that man to be on the airplane.

Commercial airliners are not meant for dying people to be riding on. If a person has a terminal illness they need to go back to their home country much earlier in the process or pay for a dedicated air ambulance.

Korean most likely did the right thing in this case.



Typhoonpilot

Our airline permits the transport of critical care patients for medical treatment. A stretcher is set up in the last row of the aircraft. A certified physician must accompany the ill passenger.

slow news day ?
 

No prob. It appears that DAL came to her rescue.:D




Fred

TP---100% right, I agree. I've had it happen before, and it is a constant hassle with cabin crew & pax. Airlines should be able to deny boarding to passengers who may not survive the trip.

Watch the video before you pass judgment. I agree it is no fun to be the Captain and Cabin crew dealing with a medical crisis but this woman is clearly able to fly. Two different doctors approved this and from the womans appearance she can withstand the flight. Apparently Delta came through for her and saved the day. I think Korean lost some customers with this debacle.

Cat stuck in pipe rescued

The problem is this: They may look okay while sitting on the ground, but put them in an economy class seat on a long haul flight; climb up to a cabin altitude of 8000 feet; then see how they are. Usually that person who looked okay on the ground starts having trouble breathing; their pulse slows; they drift in and out of consciousness. You have no way of judging how they will fair nor do the doctors who are writing the notes for them.



Typhoonpilot

Yup,

Then you have to drop into HNL, after dumping tons of fuel, because if you don't the person (in the case that happened to me) will be dead by the time you're abeam Fiji.

It happens more than the general public obviously knows, and in many cases by the time the you hit ground the patient is a corpse. Not a lot of fun, the cabin crew is freaked, the flight crew is forced to make decisions above their pay grade, and it's simply not worth it.

As for doctors, you get this a lot out of the S Pacific Islands and trust me, getting a doctors clearance is just not that difficult.

Again watch the video before passing judgment. Thank goodness some Delta pilots, staff and crew demonstrated some compassion and judgment and now this woman is able to peacefully pass away in her home country with family and loved ones. I agree with TP and Koru that this is a difficult situation to be placed in as a captain and crew but clearly this woman was able to fly and now she is safely in Korea. Each passenger must be individually evaluated. Korean will lose customers in the Seattle area because of this heart wrenching story.

Airline denies dying woman seat on Sea-Tac flight

No they won't. People pick an airline because of how cheap the ticket price is, if you think someone's going to fly on another airline that costs $100's more than Korean, just because of this story, you're kidding yourself.

Sorry, it's a hard world nowadays, and if your skin isn't thick enough, you're in for a rough time.

Flying transpacific on the 747 for a long time at NWA we used to take people home to die, usually the Phillipines being the ultimate destination..And the program worked that the patient had a block area of about 5 seats laid down in a hospital bed config.....The doctor "clearances" also had a do not resusitate (spelling error) order included. So the net effect if the person expired or more likely started to expire we did absolutely nothing about it...We would chug along our merry way and deliver the deceased to the land that they wanted to die in....The protocol was to NOT have a physician declare the patient dead...Until that person was where he or she got to destination....Maybe Delta got a similar "clearance" .......

I was siding with this woman until I read that (1) they called the media almost as soon as the airline said no to them and (2) they are now considering a lawsuit. Some people just have to get in their 15 minutes of notoriety. Next time I want to fly First Class, I'll try this same trick. I'll cry and carry on in front of everybody and the cameras. I'll have my own Facebook page and also tweet every few minutes.

Terminally ill Seattle woman arrives in S. Korea, ending airline ordeal | KING5.com Seattle

Gee, I wonder what the defense strategy will be? You don't think they'll try any delaying tactics, do you? :D

I once heard that air crews are requested to not say someone has "died" but "absence of vital signs" or something along those lines. Reason being if someone dies on board the aircraft must be quarantined. Any truth to this?

that's odd... and here I am sitting in their First Class lounge because they bumped me from Business to First for no apparent reason....

The reason is because legally only a medical doctor can determine death, not even a trained paramedic can pronounce death, only the absence of "vital signs" and that is why the declaration of death is "on arrival" when somebody passes away on an ambulance. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't even say absence of vital signs if you are not a trained medical professional because they can come back and really nail you for making that determination, rather just limit the report as the individual being unresponsive; declare an emergency, descend, land and let the emergency responders deal with it.