Dr. John Knight on CNN

• Video ID: mwKhR5_FVCs
• URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwKhR5_FVCs
• Uploaded: 2010-07-02
• Duration: 473s
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Description (channel copy)

Dr. John Knight appears on CNN to discuss helping save people's lives on airplanes.

Transcript

foreign was forced to divert one of its flights to Turkey after the co-pilot died in Flight of natural causes the Airbus A320 was flying from Manchester to Cyprus the airline did not give a cause of death meanwhile there was panic in the skies

aboard a flight to New York as a woman gasped for air Deborah Ferrick describes the attempts to save her and the controversy that followed gasping for air Kareem Desir knew she was in serious trouble am I darling please don't let me die go ask some

accident for me please baby I love you baby I love you don't let me die I can't breathe I can't breathe I can't breathe please please and I stop yelling in the brain somebody help me her cousin Antonio Oliver tells CNN affiliate WABC he begged an American Airlines flight

attendant twice to bring him oxygen please sir bring me some accident for her say it is impossible it's unclear how much time elapsed but soon after American Airlines says the captain asked passengers for help three doctors and four medical personnel on board tried

saving the Brooklyn resident her cousin describes it this way when they opened the accident think there's nothing in the thing desire's cousin says a second oxygen canister also failed as did an automatic defibrillator normally used to jumpstart the heart was it working

how do you know because the doctor said nothing is working in the plane I can't believe it one of the doctors through a lawyer says he can't confirm exactly how much oxygen was in the canister and while an American Airlines spokesman acknowledges they're investigating why

the defibrillator did not administer a shock as it should have the airline says quote we stand behind the actions and training of our crew and the functionality of the onboard medical equipment flight attendants are supposed to respond to the emergency in a timely

and efficient way if a flight attendant does not the airline may be liable for whatever happens to the passenger the passengers performed CPR for 45 minutes as the captain prepared to divert to Miami but after Miss dazir breathed her last she was laid out in the first class

aisle and the captain continued to the flight's destination New York there the medical examiner said Miss Desire died of natural causes due to diabetes and heart disease the Federal Aviation Administration says it is investigating the entire incident Deborah therick CNN

New York or whatever happened it was probably a terrifying ordeal a medical emergency in mid-flight Dr John McKnight knows something about fitting helpless when trying to help someone in the air when someone is the victim of a medical

emergency he joins us now from Los Angeles I want to talk about your experiences in just a moment Dr McKnight it's great to have you with us but first George's your reaction to what you heard about the caser of Ms desire well I was very surprised I awakened

this morning 10 years after an experience that I was involved with which we went to Great Lengths to try to get legislation and accomplish that past through Congress and this was again 10 years ago and now I awakened to see that someone died

allegedly from having inadequate equipment on board of flight so what happened to you well and uh around end of December of 1997 I was on a flight from New York to Miami with my family and a 23 year old woman on the flight

um I had it went into cardiac arrest and for 30 minutes while the plane was making an emergency landing we'd my me and a uh EMT emergency technician who was on board tried to save the uh this

passenger's life but they had inadequate uh flight attendant training they had Bare Essentials on a on the flight of Kit they had no defibrillator and as a result it was all in vain case we're hearing that there was a defibrillator but there are there are

reports that it didn't work properly that the oxygen didn't work properly there's been statements from American Airlines saying that oxygen was administered and the defibrillator was applied but plainly it seems something wasn't working right

well it I agree again I wasn't there but it seems to me that this has caught a lot of media attention and I don't think it would have uh necessarily if it was everything that the airline's saying but obviously there's two sides of this story one thing I find is interesting is

that the doctor one of the doctors already is being represented by an attorney as their spokesperson which is kind of unusual in this situation particularly since part of our legislation back in 1998 was the first ever Federal Good Samaritan law which

protects doctors that come forward from a lawsuit in this case so with your legislation how widely is it now applied is it only for flights that begin or end in the United States or domestic flights and what is required now to be carried on board plates

well I you know the initially it was international flights a lot of the international flights already had to expand in medical kits and defibrillators those are the critical flights because it's overseas usually and it's uh lengthy flights where you

can't make an emergency landing uh and so those were already fairly well equipped that's what's even more surprising in this case is that here a flight from uh you know going overseas was not equipped uh but the with the legislation the goal was also to have uh

short flights domestic flights equipped with uh expanded medical kits uh oxygen in this cases are the Bare Essentials but to have expanded medical kits and a working defibrillator that's uh looked at Daily to make certain that these that this equipment is uh is functional

there was 44 years old she probably had underlying medical conditions this uh co-pilot who's died on a British flight on its way to Cyprus he was 43 years old is flying inherently more dangerous than than not flying in terms of health conditions and what cues should you be

listening to in terms of your own body to say don't get on the plane it may not be the best place to be if something goes bad well it it you know it is by and large it's inherently safe we all do it every day and most and most people do fine

with the flight but uh but these are young people I mean 43 and 44 uh that even it with medical conditions that's still an early age to uh to have a problem and to say that they're because they have a medical condition that uh you know that they this they couldn't uh

you know be uh brought back with the right equipment uh I think is is not accurate I think that with the proper equipment these are the people uh that could easily be saved but certainly through your experiences you change the law and and for the

benefit of everyone who flies as so many of us do we really do thank you for uh for taking time with us today Dr John McKnight joining us my pleasure foreign