2 die of heart attack at airport

TNN / Jan 25, 2008, 01:45 IST

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Two elderly passengers died of a heart attack within a span of 12 hours at the Mumbai international airport.

MUMBAI: Two elderly passengers died of a heart attack within a span of 12 hours at the Mumbai international airport. While 69-year-old Toronto resident Jagjiwan Girdharlal died soon after landing after 11 pm on Wednesday, 64-year-old Ankleshwar resident Qazi Abdul Ibrahim, who was returning from Haj via Yemen Air, was declared dead on arrival around 10.10 am on Thursday.
The cause of death in both cases was registered as coronary artery disease at Cooper Hospital, said police sources.
In the first incident, Girdharlal's family claimed that he had died because of negligence on the part of airport authorities. He and his wife arrived via Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian Airlines around 11 pm; he collapsed while collecting his baggage at Terminal 2C. His family alleged that it took over 20 minutes for any form of medical help to reach the patient. However, airport authorities claimed they rushed a medical team in seven minutes after being informed.
Experts point out that in "severe heart attacks"—for instance, sudden cardiac death—there is a window period of just four minutes to resuscitate the patient.

"It was left to a fellow passenger, Aarti Tripathi, to help my brother and sister-in-law," claimed Girdharlal's sister, who identified herself as Savita. "She screamed for assistance from the airport officials, but there was a considerable delay in the doctors reaching my brother," she added. The family also claimed that the doctor who arrived seemed to be in an inebriated state. The airport authorities refuted all the allegations.

"The passenger's wife informed the doctor that he had a history of hypertension and had missed the regular dose since the medicine was in the check-in bags," said the airport spokesperson.
In the second incident, 64-year-old Ibrahim was travelling from Sanaa to Mumbai along with his family members after performing the Haj. According to police sources, his family members told the police that Ibrahim was unwell even during the trip, and had been taken to a local hospital for treatment in Yemen. Even at the Sanaa airport, he was not able to walk and had to be put in a wheelchair while getting into the aircraft. As they were nearing Mumbai, he started becoming restless, and was in a motionless state for about 45 minutes.
When the plane landed in the city, he was examined by a medical team at the airport and was declared dead. Again, the cause of death was given as ‘coronary artery heart disease', and the family decided to take the body to Gujarat for the last rites.
Meanwhile, Girdharlal's wife is waiting to fly back to Toronto with his body, which was send for embalming after the post-mortem at Cooper Hospital.
The Mumbai International Airport Limited spokesperson said that passengers must inform the airlines about their medical history. "If passengers are suffering from some illness, they must even check with their doctor to see if they are in a condition to travel," he added.

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