Man dies on Lufthansa flight after coughing up ‘litres of blood’ from mouth and nose

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A 63-year-old man has died after coughing up “litres of blood” on a Lufthansa flight from Bangkok to Munich.

Flight LH773 was scheduled to depart Bangkok for the Bavarian capital at 11.40pm on Thursday 8 February.

After 90 minutes within the air, nonetheless, the aircraft was compelled to show round after a German nationwide was pronounced useless onboard.

According to a fellow passenger, the person misplaced litres of blood by way of his mouth and nose. “It was absolute horror, everyone was screaming,” mentioned Karin Missfelder, who was located within the row diagonally behind the passenger.

Ms Missfelder, a nursing specialist at University Hospital in Zurich instantly seen her fellow passenger’s poor well being upon boarding.

“He had cold sweats, was breathing much too quickly, and was already apathetic,” she informed Swiss information outlet Blick.

The man’s Filipina spouse defined that the pair had run to the aircraft in a short time, which is why he wasn’t feeling properly.

At this stage, the nurse intervened and mentioned that the passenger wanted medical consideration, prompting the captain to name for a physician over the loudspeaker.

“A young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German,” she mentioned, however solely felt his pulse and requested how he was feeling.

“They then gave him a little chamomile tea, but he [had] already spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him,” she mentioned.

Despite the escalating state of affairs, the choice was made by airport officers to depart.

As the aircraft grew to become airborne, the person’s situation worsened dramatically and blood started gushing out of his mouth and nose. “The man lost litres of blood,” she mentioned.

Flight stewards instantly started resuscitation, to no avail, and the person was carried into the galley and a call was made to return to Bangkok.

The captain introduced over the loudspeaker that the passenger had sadly died.

Despite the ordeal that passengers had witnessed, Ms Missfelder’s husband, Martin, described the state of affairs again at Bangkok Airport as chaotic. “Nobody looked after us, we waited two hours. There was no care team there, nobody,” he mentioned.

He mentioned the worst factor was that the spouse of the deceased passenger then needed to proceed by way of customs alone. “She stood there all alone and apathetic and had to endure all the formalities.”

“The fact that Lufthansa has no measures in his case, that no one cares about around 30 traumatised passengers around, is unacceptable.”

In a press release to The Independent, a Lufthansa consultant confirmed that “a medical emergency” had occurred on the flight. “Although immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken by the crew and a doctor on board, the passenger died during the flight.

“After 1.5 hours of flight time, the crew decided to turn back to Bangkok, where the aircraft landed normally and safely. There, the instructions of the medical emergency services and the Thai authorities were followed.

“The passengers on the cancelled flight have since been rebooked on other flights. Our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased passenger. We also regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers of this flight.”

Lufthansa didn’t reply when pressed on the choice to depart Bangkok in spite of the person’s failing well being.

The information comes as service has resumed after the German flag service cancelled a whole bunch of flights from the nation’s main airports following a 27-hour strike by floor employees.

Members of the Ver.di union walked out at 5 main German airports on Wednesday 7 February in a dispute over pay.