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Girl says United Airways crew tried to make her take away son’s ventilator
United Airways mentioned it has apologized to a mom who felt “humiliated” when crew members tried to get her to take away her son’s ventilator on a flight earlier this month.
Melissa Sotomayor mentioned in a now-viral video that the flight crew on her March 8 journey from Tampa, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey, tried to make her detach her son from life-saving medical tools and retailer it in order that the aircraft might take off.
“This message is for United Airways. The best way that you simply handled my son after we have been trying to fly house from Tampa to Newark was completely ridiculous,” Sotomayor mentioned within the practically 10-minute TikTok video, which has greater than 1 million views.
United mentioned it has contacted Sotomayor “to handle her considerations and apologized for any frustration she might have skilled.” The airline didn’t present additional particulars.
Sotomayor advised NBC by way of textual content message Sunday that the airline’s apology “was not honest.”
Sotomayor mentioned her son, who’s “medically complicated,” depends on a ventilator and a tracheostomy tube. The two-year-old was born untimely, at 22 weeks gestation, she mentioned.
Sotomayor mentioned that earlier than their flight, she obtained documentation so her son might fly to their vacation spot. They didn’t encounter issues on the primary leg — the journey to Tampa.
She additionally mentioned that she shared the documentation with the airline previous to the journey and that the airline cleared her son’s medical tools with no downside.
However they bumped into points on their return flight.
Sotomayor mentioned a flight attendant knowledgeable her that she would wish to place the medical tools beneath the seat earlier than taking off.
The mom mentioned that she advised the crew member that her son couldn’t be off the machines as a result of “they’re conserving him alive,” and that she offered her documentation — together with medical clearance letter from two of her son’s docs — to the flight attendant.
She was then approached by one other flight attendant who advised her that their seats might need to be moved if she did not comply, Sotomayor mentioned.
She mentioned she offered the documentation once more and advised the attendants that her seats had been chosen by the airline’s accessibility division previous to the journey.
Sotomayor advised NBC Information that when the airline contacted her to apologize, the consultant mentioned the flight attendants reported it was a “bulk head seating downside,” although, she mentioned, they by no means talked about that within the second.
“They mentioned it was as a result of I used to be refusing to take away my son from his ventilator and transportable oxygen concentrator till takeoff,” Sotomayor mentioned.
In her video, Sotomayor mentioned a 3rd flight attendant advised her to take away the tools and that her son would “be OK till we’re within the air at a excessive sufficient altitude.” The mom refused to take away the gadgets.
A passenger sitting close by intervened, Sotomayor mentioned, and apologized for the way in which she was being handled.
The flight’s captain acquired concerned, she mentioned.
“He then says that I’m being troublesome and my son’s medical tools is a hazard to different passengers and to my son, and that I’m not following FAA pointers,” Sotomayor mentioned.
She mentioned she advised the captain that every one the medical tools was FAA permitted and confirmed her paperwork.
The captain advised Sotomayor that it was “harmful” for her son to fly and he or she as soon as once more mentioned that he had been medically cleared, the mom mentioned.
The flight departed greater than an hour later, she mentioned.
“I used to be actually upset by the way in which we have been humiliated in entrance of others in the way in which we have been talked to,” Sotomayor mentioned within the video. “The captain talked to me as if I used to be purposely endangering my son, they usually have been unwilling to take heed to the truth that my son was depending on this tools to maintain him alive.”
Sotomayor mentioned she then contacted United.
“I’ve felt so disrespected by these airways, effectively, United Airways,” she mentioned in her video, “and I’ll by no means fly United once more.”
