According to the wrongful death lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court this week, Breuer experienced ‘conscious pain and suffering,’ along with ‘agony,’ ‘mental anguish,’ and ‘fear of impending death.’
The family of a Jewish man who died from an asthma attack on a British Airways flight over the summer is suing the airline over negligence.
Shimon Breuer, 25, suffered the fatal attack aboard flight BA179 from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York last June, approximately one hour before the plane was scheduled to land at JFK International Airport.
He had been traveling to New York to volunteer at a children’s summer camp. His brother Hershel Breuer, who filed the suit as executor of Shimon’s estate, alleges the crew failed to take multiple critical steps that could have saved his brother’s life.
British Airways requires its flight attendants to be qualified in handling in-flight medical incidents, with mandatory annual refresher courses and training in aviation medical skills.
Specifically, crew members are taught to recognize and assist in treating passenger-related asthmatic events and attacks.
All BA aircraft are equipped with medicines and devices intended for emergency treatment of asthma attacks.
Measures that should have been taken but were not, include failure to contact their ground-based emergency telemedicine provider, deploy lifesaving medications from the aircraft’s emergency medical kit, declare an emergency for expedited landing status, or ensure emergency medical responders would meet the aircraft upon landing.
According to the wrongful death lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court this week, Breuer experienced “conscious pain and suffering,” along with “agony,” “mental anguish,” and “fear of impending death” before ultimately succumbing to the asthma attack.
News reports at the time suggested Breuer had accidentally dropped his personal inhaler between seats and that crew members attempted CPR and oxygen administration after he lost consciousness, but the family’s attorney Abe Bohrer firmly disputed this version of events.
“It is shocking and shameful that the airline would seek to blame the innocent victim for his own death,” Bohrer tells the Independent.
“This airline had a responsibility to this young man, they failed him, and now his family is left to pick up the pieces.”
British Airways has not commented on the pending litigation, nor has American Airlines, named as a co-defendant for operating the flight as a codeshare partner. The case, which seeks unspecified damages to be determined by a jury, awaits a court date.