Shimon Brauer 25 Dies from Asthma Attack on NY-Bound Flight

 

 A Hasidic man from Stamford Hill died on Monday after suffering an asthma attack and was unable to locate his inhaler.

Britain’s Jewish News (bit.ly/3Xq3NJj) reported that Shimoin Brauer was traveling from London to New York to work as a volunteer at an unnamed summer camp. The 25 year old’s flight was 45 minutes from landing when tragedy struck, with Brauer dropping his inhaler as he struggled to breathe.

Social media posts by kosher travel site Vakazi said that the British Airways flight crew spent over an hour attempting to revive an unconscious Brauer, giving him oxygen because they were unaware that he had suffered an asthma attack that had closed his airway. Attempts by the flight crew to perform CPR on Brauer were also unsuccessful.

In-flight fatal asthma attacks are rare, but they do occur. A nine year old boy suffered a fatal asthma attack half an hour into a flight from Auckland to Samoa in 2018, with the pilot refusing to turn the flight around and perform an emergency landing, reported KidSpot (bit.ly/3pjkOsa). The boy died 20 minutes before the flight landed in Samoa.

And Olympic Airways was ordered to pay a California woman $1.4 million in damages after her husband died on a 1998 flight from Athens to New York when his asthma was triggered by secondhand smoke, with flight attendants refusing multiple seat change requests, reported Forbes (bit.ly/43hfAet).

But those with asthma can fly safely, says the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which recommends that passengers inform flight attendants of their condition.