Passenger Dies After 'Medical Emergency' Reportedly Involving Liters of Blood Loss During International Flight
"Immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken," a spokesperson for Lufthansa told PEOPLE in a statement
A passenger on an international flight from Bangkok to Munich died on Thursday after experiencing a "medical emergency" reportedly involving liters of blood loss mid-flight.
A Lufthansa German Airlines spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE on Sunday that while "immediate and comprehensive first aid measures were taken by the crew and a doctor on board," the passenger on LH773 (Airbus A380) died mid-flight and the crew decided to turn back to Bangkok after an hour and a half in the air.
"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," the statement read.
"Our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased passenger. We also regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers of this flight."
Passengers on the flight described the scene as reported by multiple outlets over the weekend, including The New York Post, The Independent and Business Insider, all of which cited Swiss news outlet Blick.
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The outlet reported that the passenger was a 63-year-old man flying with a woman believed to be his wife. Fellow passenger Karin Missfelder noticed the man had "cold sweats, was breathing much too quickly, and was already apathetic."
Missfelder, who said she was sitting one row behind the passenger, added that a flight attendant "was very worried" about the man and that she herself asked another flight attendant to get a doctor. "[The captain] then called for a doctor over the loudspeaker — and a young, around 30-year-old man from Poland with poor English looked at the German," Missfelder told Blick.
As the fellow passenger explained, the man was given chamomile tea as he began to "spit blood into the bag that his wife held out to him" and lost liters of blood from his mouth and nose, some of which hit the walls of the plane. “It was absolute horror, everyone was screaming."
After flight personnel attempted a "resuscitation," having "lasted about half an hour," Missfelder added that it was "dead quiet on board."
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As Business Insider noted, citing online air traffic tracker flightradar24, the flight left Bangkok International Airport at 12:07 a.m. local time before eventually turning back.
In the statement to PEOPLE, the airline shared that it could not reveal specific information regarding the incident. "Please understand that we are generally cannot provide any further details in the event of medical emergencies for reasons of privacy," the airline noted.
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Read the original article on People.