Responding to a report in Arab News on Aug. 7 about 39-year-old Chekkamadath Muhammad Shafi Kutty, Air India’s Eastern Province Manager Vinod Kumar said at the time of the issuance of the ticket for the comatose patient, Shafi Kutty’s doctors were specifically asked to fill in the forms specifying the exact requirements. “This is a standard procedure in such cases, and the ailing passenger’s medical data is then passed on to our headquarters in India, which in turn arranges all the necessary equipment,” Kumar told Arab News on Sunday.

“In the medical papers that were submitted to us some days ago, Shafi Kutty’s local guardians had only requested a stretcher and two liters of oxygen,” said Kumar.

“This request was passed on to our medical department in Mumbai. A stretcher was then fitted in the Aug. 4 flight that was to carry the ailing patient home. Two cylinders of oxygen were also uplifted by the flight crew as per the stated requirement.”

Kumar said everything was going according to plan. “The boarding passes were issued; immigration formalities were completed ... The problem arose when the ambulance brought Shafi Kutty to the parked aircraft at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. Ahmed Al-Enazy, the qualified paramedic who accompanied Shafi Kutty, asked for saturization monitor, humidifier, suction apparatus and fatal-sign monitor and stated that without these equipment the passenger could not travel.”

The equipment was not onboard simply because it was not requested before. “There was no way we could have arranged all these at that moment in time. If we had been asked beforehand, then maybe our medical department in Mumbai would have arranged them all,” said Kumar.

“To our staff the demand for this equipment indicated that Shafi Kutty was in much more serious condition than what was stated in the medical forms submitted at the time of issuing the ticket. What the paramedic was asking essentially was for creating a mini-ICU in the aircraft.”

Kumar said for any airline the safety of the passenger is paramount. “When we did not have that equipment, there was no way we could have accepted the passenger. We are fully aware of our responsibilities toward the passengers at large and our own countrymen in particular ... the safety of our passengers is paramount, and the same cannot be compromised under any circumstances.”

The community members and local guardians who were involved in arranging Shafi Kutty’s ticket and other medical equipment said the medical report issued by neurosurgeons at King Fahd Medical Hospital clearly stated the patient’s condition.

“This report was submitted to the Air India reservations office in Alkhobar. They then asked us to arrange for a qualified nurse to accompany him, which we did. We assumed Air India’s medical department in Mumbai, which is where it claims the medical report was sent for clearance, would know what is required to transport a comatose patient.”

When community members who helped arrange the mercy flight home were asked if they or the doctors had requested the additional equipment expected at the time of boarding, they replied in the negative, thereby confirming the Air India manager’s contention. “How would we know about these equipment? We thought the medical report should suffice for Air India to make all required arrangements,” they said.

“I don’t know who is responsible for this fiasco,” said paramedic Al-Enazy. “All I know is that as a trained emergency medical technician, I could not allow Shafi Kutty to board without that equipment. It was a small aircraft. I myself was uncomfortable when I went in to check the facilities. I feel sorry for the patient.”

As reported earlier, Shafi Kutty has remained comatose since June 14 after sustaining serious head injuries in an accident on the Dammam-Abqaiq Highway. He was taken by Red Crescent to the King Fahd Military Hospital in Dhahran where he has been treated since then. He was taken off the ventilator on June 27 and since has been described as stable “but in a state of coma”.

KFMH doctors had suggested he be transferred to another hospital. In its July 12 medical report, signed by consulting neurosurgeon Dr. Ahmed Abdul Kader Zaiotuni and medical director Brig. Gen. Saud Al-Saif among others, it stated the patient was ineligible for further treatment at KFMH and that he should be transferred to another hospital. It also noted “the patient can be transferred by airplane with an oxygen mask.”

It was this last observation that prompted friends and community elders to arrange the trip back to India for further treatment.