Ryanair to upgrade first-aid kits after death

RYANAIR chief Michael O’Leary has said he would be willing to carry extra medical equipment on flights following complaints from a doctor and two nurses who lacked basic aids to try to save the life of an Italian au pair after she collapsed mid-air.

The plane’s first-aid kit complied with regulations, but three medics among the passengers said they were horrified to discover there was no equipment to help them try to resuscitate the young woman.

The 25-year-old was pronounced dead by doctors on the ground after the aircraft, which was flying from Venice to Dublin last Friday morning, made an emergency landing in Belgium.

She was named yesterday as Usha Massagrande, the only child of adoptive parents who lived near Verona. She was a fine arts student in Venice who was travelling to Ireland to spend three months working as an au pair with a Dublin family to help improve her English.

Early post-mortem reports from Belgium showed she died from a clot on her lung and it is not known if any medical intervention during the flight could have saved her, but an Italian doctor and two Irish nurses who happened to be on board said they could have made a better attempt at resuscitating her if basic equipment was available.

They needed an airway, a flexible plastic tube which is inserted into the mouth and throat of an unconscious patient to keep the natural airway open while mouth to mouth is given or an oxygen cylinder administered.

First-aid kits for short haul flights are not required to have airways but Mr O’Leary insisted yesterday two resuscitation masks — which the medics said would also have been useful — were available but that cabin staff had overlooked them.

The issue was highlighted on RTÉ’s Liveline programme on Monday by nurses Suzanne Scott from Dublin and Kate Douglas from Dungarvan who went to Ms Massagrande’s assistance.

Dr Stefano Zucchi, a consultant surgeon who also tried to save the young woman, yesterday backed the nurses’ calls for better medical kit to be provided on all planes.

“You have to stay there looking at the poor patient dying and do actually nothing because that’s what I did. I couldn’t do anything without a tube,” he said.

Mr O’Leary said he had no difficulty upgrading the first-aid kits if the regulations required it and he suggested discussions should take place with the Irish Aviation Authority and other airlines.