A passenger on a Lufthansa flight from Thailand to Germany died on Thursday as fellow passengers watched in horror as blood spurted from his mouth and nose.
Karin Misfelder said the unidentified 63-year-old German man was seen boarding an Airbus A380 in Bangkok just before midnight and became visibly unwell, with “cold sweats” and “shortness of breath.” It was too fast. This was reported by Swiss and German outlet Blick..
At first, his wife claimed he had to rush to catch a flight and that was why he was feeling unwell, she said.
But Missfelder, a nursing specialist at Zurich University Hospital, said that after observing the man for a while, she told the flight attendant that he needed medical attention.
A young Polish man answered the phone, and the man reportedly only asked how she was feeling, felt her pulse, and said she was okay.
“They gave him some chamomile tea, but he was already spitting blood into the bag that his wife had handed him,” said Missfelder’s husband, Martin.
Immediately, blood began to flow from his mouth and nose.
“It was really scary. Everyone was screaming,” Martin said.
The man claimed to have lost liters of blood, some of which was splattered on the plane’s walls.
For about 30 minutes, flight attendants attempted CPR. Even though the nurse said she knew it was hopeless.
When the man finally came to rest and the captain announced he was dead, “there was silence on board,” she said.
Staff then carried the man’s body to the plane’s galley, and the plane circled back to Thailand.
According to flight data, it departed from Bangkok at 11:50pm on Thursday night and landed in Thailand at 8:28am on Friday morning.
Passengers there said they had to wait two hours without any guidance from Lufthansa until they were finally booked on another flight to Germany, with a stopover in Hong Kong.
But the worst part for Missfelder was that the man’s wife had to go through customs alone.
She said she regrets not trying to help.
“I should have intervened, but I could see the doctors tending to him and I didn’t want to get involved,” she said, adding: “The man looked very ill and I was wondering why the captain was… I don’t understand why it took off.” ”
The newspaper has contacted Lufthansa for comment.
