Cardiac arrest claims another flier at Mumbai airport

Making it the third case of medical emergency in the last 15 days at the Mumbai airport, Jet Airways passenger Pankaj Kumar Goel breathed his last at the domestic airport yesterday. An on-duty MIAL doctor ascertained cardiac arrest as the cause of his death.

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Airport officials said Goel was supposed to travel to Delhi by 9W 390 at 6.15 am. However, Goel was offloaded by the airline staff and rushed to Medical Inspection Room after he complained of chest pain. After the initial check-up, an on-duty MIAL doctor advised him to consult a physician immediately.

Later, a staffer of the firm, where Goel works, reached the airport around 7.20 am and waited for him at the city side of the departures. It was while boarding a taxi that Goel collapsed. He was declared dead around 8.15 am by an MIAL doctor, ascertaining cardiac arrest as the cause of death.

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"There are midair medical emergencies, due to which unscheduled flights land at the Mumbai airport. Our on-duty doctors attend these cases. Many a times, passengers are revived using CPR and then rushed to the nearby hospital.

But at times patients pass away before the flight lands at the airport. In such cases our doctors do the needful, following which the local police take care of the legalities," explained a MIAL official, adding that the frequency of medical emergencies at the airport is so high that often the doctors have to be on their toes.