New York City ? An American Airlines passenger died after a flight attendant told her he couldn’t give her any oxygen and then tried to help her with faulty equipment, including an empty oxygen tank, a relative said.

Carine Desir, who had heart disease, died of natural causes, medical examiner’s office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said Sunday. Desir was returning home to Brooklyn from Haiti.

Desir had complained of not feeling well on the Friday flight from Port-au-Prince, according to Antonio Oliver, a cousin who was traveling with her. When Desir said she was having trouble breathing and asked for oxygen, a flight attendant twice refused her request, Oliver said Sunday.

Other passengers aboard Flight 896 became agitated over the situation, he said, and the flight attendant, apparently after phone consultation with the cockpit, tried to administer oxygen from a portable tank and mask, but the tank was empty.

Two doctors and two nurses aboard tried to administer oxygen from a second tank, which also was empty, Oliver said.

Desir was put on the floor, and a nurse tried CPR, to no avail, Oliver said. A “box,” possibly a defibrillator, also was applied but didn’t work, he said.

Desir, 44, died a short time later. “Her last words were, ‘I cannot breathe,”‘ Oliver said.