Defibrillator not used on dying Southwest passenger because his chest was 'too ... - New York Daily News

A Southwest Airlines flight attendant allegedly held off using a defibrillator on a dying New Mexico man because of his hairy chest, his widow claims.

Jack Jordan, 62, suffered a heart attack while flying from Los Angeles to Albuquerque at the end of April.

His wife, Caroline Jordan, told KOAT that other passengers performed CPR, but she noticed that the on-board automated external defibrillator (AED), which shocks the heart to reestablish normal rhythms, was not being used. Someone else asked why this was.

“The female flight attendant that had been right up there with us said, ‘because his chest is too hairy,’” Jordan told the station.

Eventually, his chest was shaven and the device was hooked up, but Jordan said it was too late. Jack died at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

KOAT Jack Jordan, 62, died of a heart attack at the end of April. KOAT Jack’s widow alleges that the potentially life-saving AED machine was not used right away because of her husband’s hairy chest. KOAT The machine was used eventually, but Caroline Jordan said it was too late to save her husband’s life.

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“I don't expect the airlines or the flight attendants to be nurses or doctors, not anywhere close,” she said. “But in that kind of a circumstance, one of the first things they should be doing is getting that AED hooked up.”

The airlines told KOAT that is is looking into the situation.

vtaylor@nydailynews.com

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