The family of a father who tragically passed away after falling sick onboard an American Airlines flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Durango–La Plata in Colorado has accused the airline and its flight attendants of negligence after they allegedly prioritized deplaning other passengers before getting medical help.
John Cannon was finally rushed to the Mercy Medical Center, where, just hours later, he was pronounced dead in the early hours of the morning, having never regained consciousness.
His son has now filed a lawsuit in a Colorado district court accusing American Airlines and its wholly owned regional subsidiary Envoy Air, which operated the flight, of negligence and wrongful death.
The incident occurred in April 2023 when John Cannon was booked to travel with American Airlines from Louisville, Kentucky, to Durango–La Plata via a layover at Dallas Fort Worth.
As John deplaned the first plane in DFW, he suffered a syncopal event and fell to the floor of the jetbridge in a state of “medical distress.” Despite displaying “concerning symptoms,” the lawsuit alleges that airline personnel released John to make his connecting little more than two minutes after he had collapsed.
John was then allowed to board his connecting flight, and it was during this two-hour flight that John “entered a stage of medical crisis which resulted in him becoming unresponsive.”
Despite John’s obvious medical emergency, his family claim the flight attendants and pilots delayed requesting medical assistance until after the plane had landed, taxied to the gate, and all the other passengers had deplaned.
At just after 4 pm on April 23, 2023, and with John slipping in and out of consciousness, a flight attendant called the emergency services, reporting that he was suffering from labored breathing.
As he was being rushed to the hospital in the back of an ambulance, John went into cardiac arrest and received multiple shocks from an automated external defibrillator as first responders fought to save his life.
The lawsuit alleges that American Airlines should not have allowed John to board his connecting flight in the first place and then, at the very least, should have prioritized his deplaning from the second plane to get him medical help.
It appears that John’s family was there but it is not clearly stated. If so, they have a greater responsibility to assess John prior to boarding a second flight. AA will get in trouble if it tries to medically assess every passenger prior to boarding. Just a cursory glance is enough so that very obviously drunk people who cannot walk upright don’t board.
The thought that comes to my mind on allowing a passenger to board a flight after some type of medical incident is this…….where is personal responsibility? In this case, the victim was a grown adult to chose to board that plane, rather than seek medical attention at the Dallas airport. Second, it seems he may have been with his family. I so, they had a responsibility in this situation as well. Finally , we don’t know why the other passengers were allowed to deboard before him. Maybe he or his family wanted it that way. Maybe he was not ready to get up? It seems he was not in cardiac arrest at that point, just labored breathing. Blaming the airline for his death is a stretch. I have been on planes where there were medical emergencies when de boarding and they always ask everyone to stay seated until medical authorities board the plane and exit the patient.