Doctors tried to revive a woman who died on a flight for 20 minutes, reports volunteer

A health professional who participated in caring for a passenger who died during a flight between Brasília and Porto Velho told g1 that she and other volunteers tried resuscitation maneuvers for around 20 minutes. The victim was unconscious and was bleeding heavily from the mouth and nose.

The woman was identified as Nair Carrier Dinis, 76 years old. She is from Paraná and lived in Rondônia with a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter.

The professional, who preferred not to identify herself, said she was on board the plane and volunteered after a request from the flight attendants. She and three other volunteers provided first care while still inside the aircraft.

"We were called because she was vomiting blood. There she had a weak pulse and was gasping (an agonizing breath), unconscious and cyanotic (with cold, bluish extremities)", he reported.

The passenger was taken to a reserved area at the front of the plane. During the care, professionals used an automatic external defibrillator (AED) and performed resuscitation maneuvers for approximately 20 minutes. However, there was no response.

According to the professional who participated in the service, the main suspicion is an acute aortic dissection, a rupture in the wall of the body's main artery. The hypothesis was considered given the large amount of blood that the passenger vomited. However, official information about the cause of death has not yet been released.

The team of volunteers declared him dead while in flight. She was evaluated by three doctors and a nurse who were on board. When the plane returned to Brasília, the woman was handed over to a team from the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu).

"Acute aortic dissection is a serious acute condition that requires immediate specialized intervention and ICU support, so from a certain point, due to the amount of bleeding, spontaneous circulation does not return among other clinical criteria, we declare death", he explained.

During the service, the professionals also consulted documents that were with the passenger and were able to identify information about her health history.

Among the documents found was a medical request for a barium esophagram, an examination that allows the esophagus to be evaluated. The request stated that the woman was having difficulty eating and could only drink liquids.

The documents also indicated a history of Chagasic cardiomegaly, a condition in which the heart increases in size as a result of Chagas disease, and Chagasic megacolon, which causes the intestine to dilate. The woman had already undergone surgery to remove part of her intestine.

The professional also reported that a prescription for medication used to treat cardiovascular problems was found.