RAD Data Communications product line manager Orly Nahum has filed a lawsuit against El Al Israel Airlines in the Tel Aviv District Court, claiming that the airline was responsible for a pulmonary embolism that she contracted on a flight from China to Israel.
According to the claim, in February 2004, Nahum flew with El Al to China on a work-related trip. Two hours after the plane landed in Tel Aviv on the return flight, which lasted ten hours, she felt ill, and lost consciousness. It turned out that she had suffered a pulmonary embolism. Professor Benjamin Brenner, head of the thrombosis unit at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, who examined Nahum, found a link between negligent behavior on El Al's part and damage to the claimant's health.
According to Brenner, El Al failed to take the necessary precautions, and did not warn passengers of the risk of pulmonary embolism on long flights, even though the risk was known to the air crews.
It is alleged that, after the claimant developed the pulmonary embolism, El Al was negligent in the provision of appropriate medical attention once the aircraft landed, and failed to transfer Nahum urgently by ambulance with oxygen and accompanying medical care from the aircraft to the hospital trauma department. As a result, her pulmonary embolism condition worsened, and diagnosis and treatment were delayed.
Nahum claims that, because of the incident, her life expectancy has been shortened by 30%, and that she suffers from permanent 28% medical disability because of a blood-clotting disorder and her post-pulmonary embolism condition.
No statement of defense has yet been filed.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 6, 2005