I-Team: Lawsuit Filed After Woman's Death In Philadelphia International Airport
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- An exclusive CBS 3 I-Team report first revealed that 38-year-old Jennifer Moore, a mother of two, died after being taken ill in a restroom inside Terminal E at Philadelphia International Airport, even as a Good Samaritan and the victim pleaded with dispatchers to send medics.
Now, Moore's family is filing a wrongful death suit, naming the City of Philadelphia and Airtran Airways, a subsidiary of Southwest Airlines. The suit claims Moore, who was on a flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia after celebrating her son's 16th birthday, became seriously ill with a pulmonary embolism, but, they allege, the aircraft crew offered no help. Moore managed to make her way to a restroom in Terminal E, where she collapsed.
The suit also maintains that, because of dispatching and radio confusion and the improper marking of restrooms that made them hard to locate, it took medics 40 minutes to arrive. Mrs. Moore was later pronounced dead.
Responding to the I-Team report at the time of Mrs. Moore's death, city officials made changes to medic dispatching procedures and radio frequency monitoring. They also installed signs at restrooms. City officials and a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines declined comment on the suit.
Tracy Smith, the Good Samaritan who stayed by the dying woman's side trying to get help for her, tells CBS 3, "she absolutely could have been saved. There was no reason for her to die."
Mr. Moore, who says his family has been "torn apart" by the loss, also adds that in the past two years, he has never received an explanation or apology for the incident.
He adds, however, that he did receive a bill from the city for the ambulance service.
