United Settles in Cardiac Arrest Death

Code Blue UNITED SETTLES IN CARDIAC ARREST DEATH:
WIDOW SAW NEGLIGENCE IN LACK OF DEFIBRILLATOR

9/13/2000
John Crewdson, Staff Writer
Chicago Tribune

BOSTON -- United Airlines has reached a settlement in a 2-year-old lawsuit brought by a Massachusetts woman who charged the airline with negligence after her 37-year-old husband died of cardiac arrest aboard a United flight in 1995, according to court records here.

The woman, Jamie Somes of Wellesley Hills, Mass., had charged that the airline contributed to the death of her husband, stock fund manager Steven Somes, by failing to equip its planes sooner with portable defibrillators, the laptop-size machines that can deliver a powerful electric shock capable of restoring a heart's normal rhythm.

Somes brought the suit following a 1996 Tribune report, "Code Blue: Survival in the Sky," which recounted her husband's death on a San Francisco-bound flight over the Rocky Mountains despite the presence among his fellow passengers of three physicians, a paramedic and a nurse.

The suit, which was scheduled to go to trial in federal court here this week, noted that for several years before Somes' death a handful of foreign airlines were carrying portable defibrillators.

In seeking $18 million in compensation for her husband's lost income, Somes said she also hoped to force the airline to upgrade its in-flight emergency medical capability. "I want to make United accountable. I hope they will wake up and take charge," she said.

Two weeks after the suit was filed in February 1998, United announced it would join its principal competitors, American and Delta, both of which were already committed to equipping their fleets with defibrillators and enhanced emergency kits containing cardiac drugs and a variety of other medicines. After an 18-month delay, United installed it first defibrillators last fall and says it expects to complete the process later this year.

Citing a confidentiality agreement imposed by United as a condition of the settlement, lawyers on both sides declined to say how much money United paid Somes to settle the case, which spawned similar suits against American, Delta and Northwest.

Although United admitted no liability in agreeing to the settlement, court records suggest that some of the internal airline documents unearthed by Somes' lawyers would have undercut any claim by United that it was unable to install defibrillators before Somes' death in October 1995.

In pretrial motions, Somes' lawyers maintained that United was aware before Steven Somes died that portable defibrillators were in use by a handful of foreign airlines, including the Australian carrier Qantas and London-based Virgin Atlantic.

That assertion was confirmed by United's corporate medical director, Dr. Gary Kohn, who acknowledged having known in December 1994 that Qantas had "reported successful resuscitations aboard their aircraft," including the mid-Pacific defibrillation of a Texas man on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney.

Kohn also acknowledged having requested an internal study of possible enhancements to United's in-flight medical care, including defibrillators. Dated Dec. 29, 1994, 10 months before Somes' death, the report concluded that adding defibrillators to United's fleet "might well make a difference" in treating cases of cardiac arrest.

But the study noted that, "from a financial feasibility point of view, however, this approach is difficult to support. To put such equipment on a fleet of over 500 aircraft would cost, conservatively, over $2,000,000."

Despite the report's conclusion, Kohn denied cost had been a factor in United's decision not to begin carrying defibrillators sooner than it did. "Our position in 1994 is the same as it's always been," Kohn testified in a pretrial deposition, "that is, that financial feasibility is not an issue when it comes to safety."

A United lawyer, Kurt B. Gerstner, agreed with Kohn that "cost was not a factor" in the airline's decision not to carry defibrillators in 1995. "We had the money," Gerstner told U.S. District Judge Morris Lasker at a pretrial hearing. "If we had decided it was a good idea, we could have done this. We could have put defibrillators on board."

According to United, at the time Kohn "did not believe that there were any compelling reasons to put defibrillators on board." But documents produced by United show that physicians who complained to the airline about the inadequacy of the medical equipment available during in-flight emergencies received a letter from the airline's medical department citing the cost of upgrading that equipment.

American Airlines, which announced plans to install defibrillators and hospital-style medical kits in November 1996, has saved the lives of 15 of the 31 passengers it has defibrillated, a spokesman said.

On July 31, United attendants saved their first passenger, 65-year-old Giulia Albergo of Wood Dale, Ill., who collapsed while boarding a Chicago-bound flight in Tampa.

Of the seven major U.S. air carriers, only TWA has not announced its intention to carry defibrillators. In May, however, President Clinton proposed a new federal regulation that would require all commercial airplanes with at least one flight attendant to install the machines.

What may represent the next step in in-flight medical care occurred the day before Clinton's announcement, when a device the size of a deck of playing cards was used to send an electrocardiogram from a British Airways plane over the Atlantic via satellite to computers in the U.S. and Britain.

The devices, which British Airways says it will begin installing next year, can transmit a hospital-quality EKG that allows physicians on the ground to determine whether a passenger is suffering from indigestion or a heart attack that requires immediate treatment and an emergency landing.