A United Airlines passenger who died after collapsing on a flight to Los Angeles – and received CPR from fellow travelers – had the coronavirus, a coroner said.
The 69-year-old man, identified as Isaias Hernandez, died in a Louisiana hospital shortly after United Flight 591 crash-landed in New Orleans on December 14.
Several other passengers had attempted to bring him back to life in the air for over an hour – even after the husband’s wife admitted her husband had COVID-19 symptoms.
The suspected diagnosis was confirmed Tuesday when Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich determined that the man died of COVID-19 and acute respiratory failure, the Washington Post reported.
Hernandez had incorrectly said he had no coronavirus symptoms on a pre-flight checklist, the paper said.
Nearly 200 people were on the flight from Orlando to LA when he lost consciousness mid-flight.
One of the fellow passengers who came to his rescue, EMT Tony Aldapa, said on Twitter that he knew the risks of CPR, but “could not have stood idly by and watched someone die.”
Hernandez’s wife later said her husband was scheduled for a COVID-19 test when the couple arrived in California – after losing his sense of taste and smell and having trouble breathing, according to the Washington Post.