EMT who helped dying passenger notified of COVID-19 exposure 10 days after flight, he says
Jeff Chiu/AP
FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, a United Airlines airplane takes off over a plane on the runway at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
By: Scripps National
and last updated 2020-12-29 14:43:36-05
An EMT who performed CPR on a fellow passenger who had a medical emergency onboard earlier this month, and later died from COVID-19, says he was just notified by his health department about his possible exposure - 10 days after the flight.
Tony Adalpa was on the
United Airlines Passengers Who Gave Aid to Dying Man With COVID Were Given $75 Flight Voucher
It s been confirmed that a man who died last week in some respiratory or cardiac distress on board a California-bound United flight out of Orlando was COVID-positive. And now passengers who helped administer medical aid are wondering why they had to find out from the news media.
The nightmare of all COVID nightmares happened to a group of passengers flying from Orlando to Los Angeles on December 14, after a 69-year-old man experiencing COVID symptoms lied on a travel form, boarded the plane, and promptly went into cardiac arrest after takeoff. The plane made a medical-emergency landing in New Orleans, and while some passengers overheard the man s wife tell medical personnel that he had been experiencing symptoms, including a loss of taste and smell, the United crew understood that the man had died of a heart attack, and decided to fly the same plane on to LAX. Passengers were given the opt
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Passenger Who Had Medical Emergency on US Flight Died of Covid-19, Confirms Coroner
In this July 1, 2020, file photo, United Airlines planes are parked at gates at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
The episode prompted alarm after social media reports at the time indicated that the man’s wife had told emergency medical workers that her husband had tested positive for the coronavirus.
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A coroner in Louisiana confirmed Tuesday what some had feared: that the death last week of a 69-year-old man who experienced a medical emergency aboard a United Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles had been caused by COVID-19. The coroner’s office in Jefferson Parish identified the passenger as Isais Hernandez, 69, of Los Angeles, who was on United Flight 591 when it took off from Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 18.