Touch-and-go: Max Pearson had been reporting on the earthquake in Japan for a week before his journey homeA BBC radio presenter who suffered a heart attack while flying home from covering the Japanese tsunami may take legal action against the airline after it refused to divert the jet to the nearest hospital.
Max Pearson had to endure the 14-hour Singapore Airlines flight in cardiac arrest and now, according to colleagues, has been left with long-term heart damage as a result.
The award-winning BBC World Service journalist had been reporting on the earthquake for a week. He later flew from Tokyo to Singapore, then boarded a connecting flight bound for London which landed on March 18.
Soon after the plane took off from Singapore, Mr Pearson, 51, suffered a heart attack. It is claimed cabin crew refused requests to reroute the plane so he could receive urgent medical attention.
Mr Pearson, a married father of two, was rushed by ambulance to Harefield Hospital as soon as the jet touched down at Heathrow and underwent emergency surgery which saved his life.
He was kept in hospital to recover for almost a week and has been off work for the past month.
Speaking from his £750,000 home near East Grinstead, West Sussex, where he is resting, Mr Pearson said: ‘I don’t want to talk about it yet. It’s a very delicate situation.’
A BBC source said: ‘It is lucky he managed to survive. It looks as if he was attended to by one of the passengers, who was a doctor, during the flight.
‘He says he asked for them to redirect him to hospital but it didn’t happen. After that it was touch-and-go whether he was going to make the 14-hour flight, but amazingly he did.
‘Max is still very poorly and is considering taking legal action against Singapore Airlines.’
A spokesman for the company refused to comment.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377675/BBC-radio-presenter-Max-Pearson-endured-heart-attack-flight-pilot-refused-land.html#ixzz1JpgTjQym
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