Syrian woman dies on airport airbridge

A SYRIAN woman, Shaha Rashid, 44, died on a Larnaca airport airbridge late on Friday, seconds before she was to board a flight to Damascus with her two teenage children.

Rashid, who was suffering the last stages of stomach cancer arrived at the airport in a wheelchair with her children aged 14 and 15. Her wish had been to spend her last days in her own country with her family and friends.

Rashid fell unconscious on the airbridge connecting the airplane to the terminal and was already dead by the time medical services managed to get to her.

She was declared officially dead at the emergency department at Larnaca Hospital where she was transferred after being initially taken to the airport’s medical centre.

“It is a tragic situation,” said Adamos Aspris, the spokesman for Larnaca airport “If only we had been able to do something but, unfortunately, she was already dead by the time the nurse arrived”.

Rashid’s children have been taken into the temporary care of the Welfare Office.

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