Flight clot victim allowed no room

By MARTIN JOHNSTON and MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Gillian Beattie thought she had done everything right to protect herself from economy class syndrome.

She had heard all about it in the British media before emigrating to New Zealand with her partner in November.

She swallowed aspirin, drank plenty of water and regularly walked in the plane.

Despite her care, she was struck by pain in her right knee during the Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur.

She asked a flight attendant if she could lie down to stretch her legs for half an hour.

"But she wouldn't let me, and stated the flight was full, despite several seats being available in business class," Miss Beattie said yesterday.

Within days of landing at Auckland on November 25 after their flight from Kuala Lumpur, Miss Beattie had been diagnosed with a blood clot in her leg - deep vein thrombosis.

It has not moved to her lungs, but in one false alarm she thought it had.

Middlemore Hospital is treating her as an outpatient.

She is taking a three-month course of blood-thinning drugs and wears a surgical compression stocking.

She is well under the danger age-zone and bears none of the characteristics that put people at increased risk of clots, such as a genetic predisposition, pregnancy or obesity.

And she took precautions by swallowing aspirin before her flight, and drinking plenty of water and walking regularly in the plane.

"It's scary. This is what I'm angry about.

"Airlines are trying to pass on the responsibility to passengers. How can they when they have provided so little information on this?

"And how does it happen to me when I took the precautions ... There needs to be more research."

Malaysia Airlines' New Zealand sales and marketing manager, Richard Fletcher, said last night that he had no information on how Miss Beattie was treated inflight, but people were able to lie down on the company's planes in a medical emergency.

Passengers were given advice, like minimising alcohol intake and drinking water, he said, but the airline's inflight magazine did not mention blood clots.

Air travellers are taking to heart warnings about economy class syndrome and have started pounding the aisles in droves.

Flight attendants report a surge in the number of people walking around aircraft, and not just on long flights.

Terry Law, executive officer of the Flight Attendants Association, said yesterday that flight attendants working on transtasman flights over the weekend were surprised at the increased activity of passengers.

On flights serviced by smaller aircraft like the 737, that can cause "minor blockages" in the aircraft's single aisle.

"It does appear to have increased congestion," Mr Law said.

He said that having more passengers walking around was not really a problem but it made for "a bit of adjusting" when flight attendants were serving drinks and meals.

Despite the congestion, Mr Law said, flight attendants were pleased passengers were taking the health warnings seriously.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Helen Clark said she would speak to Transport Minister Mark Gosche about the issues surrounding economy class syndrome, in particular what other Governments were doing.

Mr Gosche has already asked for an update on economy class syndrome from officials at the Civil Aviation Authority.

A spokesman for Helen Clark said the Prime Minister, who recently returned from a climbing expedition in Argentina, was aware of the potential problems involved with long-distance flying and always drank plenty of water.