Tony Aldapa who performed CPR on a collapsed patient with COVID-19 on-board United Airlines now has COVID-19 symptoms!

Ethics Vs personal safety! What would you choose? An emergency medical technician, Tony Aldapa chose his duty and professional ethics and resuscitated a passenger on-board a United Airlines plane. The passenger had collapsed and also had COVID-19. Despite knowing it, the off-duty EMT performed CPR on the dying passenger. And now he has revealed that he has signs of COVID-19 and they are bad. 

Tony Aldapa does CPR on-board a plane

Tony Aldapa was off-duty and traveling on a United Airlines airplane from Orlando to Los Angeles when one passenger named Isaias Hernandez, 69 collapsed. There were 200 passengers on board the plane. The person’s wife told them all that Isais has COVID-19. Yet the EMT rushed to assist the man. Tony performed CPR on him. The flight did an emergency landing and just after that, the man was pronounced dead by the ground emergency team. This happened on Monday 21 December 2020.

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CPR on-board United Airlines: Tony Aldapa [Source: Daily Mail UK]

The next day, Gerry Cvitanovich, Jefferson Parish Coroner did an autopsy on Isaias and confirmed that he has died of COVID-19 with acute respiratory failure.

Tony Aldapa has COVID-19

The devoted EMT had immediately rushed to the side of the patient and did a CPR on him. And now, he has revealed that he also has COVID-19 symptoms. Tony said that he feels that he has been hit by a train. He told CBS Los Angeles:

“It was all kind of just second nature to see someone in a bad place, you try to bring them out of the bad place,” 

 “There were three of us that were essentially tag-teaming doing chest compressions — probably about 45 minutes,”

Tony added:

“She [Isaias’ wife] told me he had symptoms, he was short of breath and she just wanted to get him home and they planned on getting tested this week,”

After dropping the patient, the plane proceeded on its onward journey to LA. And Tony is now worried. He said:  
“Essentially I just feel like I got hit by a train. I had a cough, my whole body still hurt, I had a headache.”

How a person with symptoms of COVID-19 was allowed to board the flight is another question!!!

Tony Aldapa [Source: The Sun UK]

The role of the United Airlines

It is not certain how United Airlines allowed a passenger with symptoms of COVID-19 to board the said flight. Besides, the passenger and his wife should have first tested and later boarded the flight rather than boarding and later wanting to test!!!

TMZ has also reported that the Unites Airlines has yet not notified the 179 passengers who were on the same flight that the passenger who died had COVID-19. When asked, the spokesperson stated that to notify them is not their responsibility!!! An Airlines rep had revealed that they have contacted the CDC and provided all the relevant details to them. And the rep said that it is the CDC who should contact the exposed people and notify them. They also said that they were initially told that the passenger had a cardiac arrest. Only later, they came to know that he died of COVID-19:

“We are sharing requested information with the (CDC) so they can work with local health officials to conduct outreach to any customer the CDC believes may be at risk for possible exposure or infection,”

With such irresponsibility around and poor policies in place, why will COVID-19 not increase???

As per the policy, a passenger has just to fill a form before boarding that he or she has no symptoms of COVID-19 in the last 14 days and that they have not tested positive. There is no proof required from the travelers! Tony also said that the CDC has yet not contacted him. CDC said:

 “It is in the process of collecting information and proceeding according to our standard operating procedures to determine if further public health action is appropriate.”

“To protect the privacy of the individual, we aren’t providing this information to the public,”