Letters
Airline passenger dies after being sedated
BMJ 1999; 318 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7196.1491b (Published 29 May 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;318:1491
Death may have been due to positional asphyxia …
- H A Macdonald, Chief medical adviser, New Zealand Police (hjwgtn@ihug.co.nz)
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
EDITOR—Kovac describes how a disturbed man on a plane who had probably taken drugs and alcohol died after being restrained and given intravenous sedation with diazepam.1 This would appear to have been a classic example of positional asphyxia, which is well known to police and custodial services world wide. The cardinal …