Court finds ‘a genuine dispute remains’ whether defibrillator functioned during emergency

A federal appellate court has found that reasonable questions remain about whether an onboard automated external defibrillator functioned properly during the inflight medical treatment of a 14-year-old American Airlines passenger who died inflight. The ruling by a Fifth Circuit panel returns the case to a Fort Worth federal court for trial.

Kevin Greenidge was returning to New York from a summer vacation in Honduras with his family in 2022 when he lost consciousness and became unresponsive shortly after takeoff.

The flight made an emergency landing in Cancun, and Kevin was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead. According to the lawsuit filed by his mother, Melissa Arzu, the flight crew struggled to operate the AED, which failed to deliver an electrical shock to restore Kevin’s heart rhythm.

“As the appellate court noted, the doctor and nurse attending to Kevin during the emergency, together with other witnesses, agreed that no shock occurred,” says Darren Nicholson, one of the attorneys representing Ms. Arzu.

“We are pleased that Kevin’s case will now move forward, nearly four years after his death,” says Hannah Crowe, Ms. Arzu’s other attorney.

Ms. Arzu originally filed her lawsuit in 2022 in New York where she resides, but the airline fought to transfer the case to Fort Worth, where it is headquartered.

Mr. Nicholson and Ms. Crowe, with the law firm of Burns Charest LLP, were retained following the change of venue.

Defibrillators have been federally required on all passenger aircraft since 2004, and Federal Aviation Administration regulations require that AEDs be properly labeled, regularly inspected for readiness to perform during emergencies and function properly according to their manufacturer's recommendations.

The case is Melissa Suzette Arzu, Individually and as the Administrator of the Estate of Kevin Greenidge, Deceased v. American Airlines, Inc., Case No. 4:24-cv-00433-P, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.

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