- Melissa Arzu, mom of the late Kevin Greenidge, filed the lawsuit in federal court
- It claims a crew botched a June 2022 crisis that saw him go into cardiac arrest
The mother of a 14-year-old who died on a 2022 American Airlines flight has filed a lawsuit claiming he could have been saved if not for a ‘faulty’ defibrillator and an untrained flight crew.
Melissa Arzu, mom of the late Kevin Greenidge, filed the lawsuit last year in New York, but had to transfer the case to Fort Worth due to it being where the airline is headquartered.
It claims a flight crew was slow to respond to a crisis that saw the teen go into cardiac arrest, and struggled to even turn on the automated external device immediately afterwards.
They also failed to deliver an electrical shock meant to restore the boy’s heart rhythm, the suit states – effectively leaving him to die on board.
The federal suit further claims the defibrillator was faulty – not ‘fully and properly charged’ as the FAA demands. This, Arzu argues, ’caused, permitted, and/or hastened the untimely death of’ her son, and left her to pick up the pieces alone.
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‘After Kevin died, I never heard from American Airlines,’ the 45-year-old said in a filmed interview after filing the new suit on Monday.
‘It made me feel hopeless,’ she went on, speaking from her apartment in the Bronx.
‘I want answers from American Airlines. I want American Airlines to take full responsibility for [his] death.
‘I never want this to happen to a child or family again.’
The lawsuit tells the rest of the tale – albeit her side – and how American allegedly failed to ‘ensure that the automatic external defibrillator (AED) and its mobile battery pack were fully and properly charged’ for the June 2022 flight.
The boy, the filing states, had been traveling flying from Honduras to Miami with his uncle when he suddenly fell ill, after which ‘American Airlines flight personnel failed to timely respond to [his] medical emergency.’
Moreover, they also allegedly failed ‘to timely transfer Greenidge from his window seat to the back of the airplane where aid could be rendered,’ and neglected to ‘request the assistance of medically trained passengers on board’ as well.
‘When flight personnel eventually attempted to use the AED on Greenidge,’ lawyers for the mom wrote that ‘they were either unable to properly operate the machine or the machine did not function properly.’
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Eyewitnesses allegedly added that ‘each time the AED gave a ‘clear’ warning for people to step back… so that a shock could be administered, a shock was not delivered.
‘Instead, the machine simply kept advising that CPR should be continued.’
A later analysis of airline records for AA Flight 614 eventually found the ‘American Airlines flight personnel were not trained to use the type of AED machine that was on board’ – a direct violation of federal law.
‘Had AA Flight 614 been properly equipped with the necessary and functional medical equipment… and had airline personnel timely responded to Greenidge’s medical emergency…. [he] would not have experienced the intense… pain he [did]’, the suit states.
In a statement issued to Insider back in March, an American Airlines spokesperson said the carrier was reviewing the details of the lawsuit, which has since been reallocated to the United States District Court for The Northern District of Texas.
‘Our thoughts are with Ms. Greenidge and his loved ones,’ the airline said at the time.
The suit, meanwhile, asks for unspecified damages, as defibrillators have been federally required on all passenger aircraft by the FAA since 2004.
In fact, American was the first US commercial airline to put them on its planes in 1997, taking painstaking efforts to train flight attendants to use them.
The devices are so important that if they are deemed missing or ‘inoperative’ on a commercial plane, the craft will simply not be dispatched, a section of the FAA’s official website states.
‘Individual airlines should develop a protocol for automatic external defibrillator use,’ the agency writes – adding that a ‘minimum’ requirement for take off is an ‘operative’ deliberator.
This was not the case on June, 2, 2022, Arzu argues – with her suit further stating that ‘as a direct result of American Airlines’ actions and failures [that day], Greenidge passed away at the young age of 14 years old.’
Her lawyer, Hannah Crowe, said in a video statement sent to DailyMail.com this week that while American took months to even acknowledge her client’s qualms, she is hopeful a jury will side with them.
‘Texas juries are tough, but they’re fair,’ she said of the freshly filed suit.
‘Our jury is going to hear what happened to Kevin,’ she added.
‘They are going to hear the facts of this case, and they are going to be shocked that American Airlines would put its passengers, especially children, in this kind of danger.’
As she spoke, a summons was issued for American to appear in Texas federal court.
Issued Monday, the filing has yet to garner a response from the airline, which has 60 days to respond.
If they do not, a judgment will be entered on the carrier’s behalf by default, for the relief demanded in the complaint.
DailyMail.com has reached out to American for comment.
