3d ago

Woman says United Airlines crew tried to make her remove son's ventilator

www.nbcnews.com Woman says United Airlines crew tried to make her remove son's ventilator

Melissa Sotomayor said in a now-viral video she was humiliated by the way she was spoken to. The airline said it had apologized to her.

Summary

United Airlines apologized to Melissa Sotomayor after crew members tried to make her remove her son's ventilator during a March 8 flight from Tampa to Newark.

Sotomayor, whose 2-year-old son relies on a ventilator and tracheostomy tube, said staff demanded the equipment be stowed for takeoff despite prior medical clearance.

A third flight attendant claimed the child would "be OK" without it. The captain called her "difficult" and said the equipment was a safety risk.

Sotomayor expressed feeling humiliated and vowed never to fly United again.

78 comments

Oh, the airline that kicked out the doctor?
It's already on my no-fly-list
- Kicked out? I’m pretty sure they beat the ever-loving shit out of him first.
- The one that also breaks guitars, yes.

Let’s not forget the time a United flight was overbooked and picked a random guy to take off the plane even though he was already in his seat. He refused and the passenger was beaten unconscious and dragged out on his back https://youtu.be/VrDWY6C1178
- He was a physician seeing patients the next morning, so he was the worst person to try and force to take another flight
- The people responsible for doing that should be in prison or dead.
  
  In prison, yes
  Dead? No.
  Let's not get down to their level and lose our ethics
  
  Stochastic tyranny. No single piece of the machine is particularly responsible for the horrific result.
  Your representative (AKA you) allow airlines to overbook.
  100% of the passengers make the flight, none take the buyout or bump.
  Airlines throw someone off at random, calling the cops because it's now legally a criminal trespass.
  Every single snowflake in the equation feels they are not responsible for the avalanche.

I love all the medical degrees they give their flight staff.
- They give them so many, that they feel comfortable physically dragging passengers with medical degrees off of their flights.
  
  I thought it was to teach them proper dragging techniques.

United said it has contacted Sotomayor "to address her concerns.."
Yes because obviously it was "her concerns" that was the problem!!!
Fucking spin talk, turning everything upside down!
It's disgusting.
- Never apologize, always use passive voice. Gross.
  
  That's not passive voice. Passive voice would be "to ensure her concerns will be addressed".
- The "concerns" could well be a letter from her lawyers.
  
  Then they wrote her lawyers, not her.
  It doesn't change the level of corp speak IMO.

Everyone keeps flying on United despite a million stories happening to "other people" but it won't happen to them. Fucking honestly I'm running out of sympathy for people who give their money to profoundly shitty companies and then are shocked when they're treated badly.
- Until you start up a "nice" airline and get the infrastructure going, maybe try to maintain a little of that precious sympathy for those of us with no other fucking choice.
- I just was posting in a thread about boycotts, and mentioned how most shitty companies that are being called for boycotts are companies I started boycotting long ago, and my example was United.
  I've already been boycotting them for years, for destroying guitars, and beating their passengers unconscious, or just offering the highest prices for the worst service, which is the main reason I avoid them. I just want to get to another airport, and Im happy with doing it the cheapeat way, as long as they don't destroy my guitar or beat me senseless.
  
  Did one or both of those things happen to you on a United flight? Was it the same flight? Did they break your guitar over you? Did you discover your guitar was broken and went to complain and the dude behind the counter just started beating the shit out of you?
  I'm locked in and would love the context.
- Is there an airline we shouldn't be boycotting?
  
  Non-North America based if possible, Air Alaska group if not IMO, Southwest used to be a decent option but not since the hedge fund took over. Might be other choices if you're East Coast based. Might be CA options better than Air Canada that I'm unfamiliar with too.
- I would like to say it's due to empathy... But I stopped flying United just because it's objectively the worst airline. Planes are cramped, tickets are expensive, cancellations have been an issue, treatment is atrocious. It's shouldn't be hard to vote with your wallet when literally any alternative is better

Reading this just after reading about that guy getting pulled out of that lavatory with his dick out by a united pilot lol. Is being a piece of shit a requirement to get hired by united
- Everyone who isn’t a prick chooses work at other airlines.
  The number of issues United has is indicative of severe cultural issues within the company. Toxic work culture drives good, compassionate employees away and leaves only the people who thrive in toxic environments.
- A piece of shit? One could go to prison in my country for doing something like this
  
  Do you put non-pieces of shit in prison in your country or are you just criticizing them for using a synonym?

In her video, Sotomayor said a third flight attendant told her to remove the equipment and said her son would "be OK until we're in the air at a high enough altitude."
Are they backed by medical degrees or something that they feel they can make these assertions?
- When my son was in kindergarten, he was temptoarily on medication for an illness he was getting over, and I went to the school and filled out all the paperwork, and showed the nurse the dosage, etc.
  When the nurse went to give him the medication, the teacher told the nurse he was fine, and didn't need it, and the nurse left without administering the medication. When I picked him up from school, he was wheezing and really needed his medicine.
  I wrote a very angry email, demanding to know what medical school his tescher had gone to, that she felt she could overrule his pediatrician's medical orders, and what about that nurse, who should have said "I'm not asking for your permission, I'm TELLING you that it's time for his medication."
  Of course, I threatened to consult with a lawyer, and the next day, the teacher was out on maternity leave. She was supposed to start in a month, but apparently the principal decided that it should start immediately.
  I wondered if it was because of my email, but when she returned at the end of the year for kindergarten graduation (thats a thing these days), carrying her baby, nobody would talk to her or even compliment her baby. One mother sat with her back to her, arms crossed, clearly angry. I guess we werent the only parents she pissed off, we were probably just the last straw, being a medical issue with legal threats.
  She did not return to teach the following year.
  
  I'm getting that, teacher from the movie "Interstellar" vibes.

So if she complied and her kid died, that's negligent manslaughter, right? I wonder if she'd sue the flight crew, or the airline.
- Seeing how it was Florida, they would probably arrest her for infanticide and give a medal to the flight crew for trying to save the kids life or some bullshit.
  Seriously, fuck that entire godforsaken state.
- A third flight attendant claimed the child would "be OK" without it.
  This person was almost certainly practicing medicine without a license
  
  "I saw it on the internet, try doing some research"
- All of the above, and probably the airport, TSA, and anyone else with deep pockets.
  She should sue them all anyway.

She was then approached by another flight attendant who told her that their seats might have to be moved if she didn't comply, Sotomayor said.
This stuck out to me.
There's only one place in the passenger compartment of a plane I know has specific rules for sitting there: the wing exit row
Having sat in the exit row before, I know the flight crew is very unforgiving for items that may block transit of passengers should the need to get off the plane present itself. This may be backed up with another statement in the article:
Sotomayor said that before their flight, she obtained documentation so her son could fly to their destination. They did not encounter problems on the first leg — the trip to Tampa.
Were they not in an exit row on that flight, and therefor it wasn't an issue?
It sounds like Sotomayor did everything correctly with her prep before flying. Assuming all the statements in the article are factual and my exit row theory is correct, someone at United screwed up approving an exit row seat for her and her son's return flight, and that dropped the problem in the laps of the United flight crew that has to comply with FAA regulations.
- 2 year olds can’t be in an exit row to begin with, regardless of medical equipment
  
  Well, what if they can command the exit door and help other passengers exit in an orderly manner? It would be a very tall and strong toddler.
- Actually, the crew should have taken one look when her kid was pre-boarded with that equipment and politely changed them to seats where it could be used safely, before they got all settled and before boarding the rest of the plane.
  
  Exactly. It shouldn’t have even been an issue, because the crew is supposed to make sure the passengers sitting in the exit rows are able and willing to actually pop the hatches open in the event of an evacuation.
  During an evacuation, plane rows are too crowded for attendants to be able to get to the doors and open them. Know how you’re stuck in the plane waiting for everyone to de-board after the flight? Attendants have to deal with that when evacuating. So the passengers need to be the ones to actually pop the hatches and start clearing the plane.
  
  I haven't had the need to use pre-boarding before, but usually I see flight attendants pretty busy with tasks as passengers are boarding.
  I think we both agree the original screw up is the United Reservation folks that approved these passengers for seats they couldn't be eligible for because of the needed equipment. Its also possible that United Reservation folks may not have marked the paperwork that the equipment was required for the kid to live. So the flight crew may have thought the mom was trying to leverage the situation to get behavior she didn't need. I still maintain the mom did all the prep work properly and this was a fault on United.
- It could have been a bulkhead seat, too. That's the only other place where there are stricter regulations.
  Yes. United's reservation agents screwed up big time. The lady did everything she was supposed to. The crew could have solved this simply by asking for volunteers to exchange seats. Instead, they assumed that they knew more about the kid's'condition than his mother did.
  
  It could have been a bulkhead seat, too. That’s the only other place where there are stricter regulations.
  I didn't know that about bulkhead seats. I think you're right then, the article mentions something about that:
  " the representative said the flight attendants reported it was a "bulk head seating problem," "
  So it does sound like this isn't the flight crew being assholes, but rather the booking approver put then in a place the FAA won't allow them to fly. If Sotomayor her first flight in a bulkhead as well, this is lose-lose for United. They either flouted the FAA rules on the first flight or created a combative situation on the second flight by trying to follow the FAA rules.
- I don't think the "edit row" theory is correct as they wouldn't allow a child to sit there regardless of whether they're using a ventilator or not.

sounds about like the service I'd expect from a united flight.

United breaks guitars. https://youtu.be/5YGc4zOqozo
- United punches doctors out and drags them off of flights.
  Unitied kills your pets.

United and American airlines have the worst corporate policies
- But they're not the worst airlines overall.
  You need to come to ... Canada? Is that right? Apparently so.

You can fly out of Florida, but you can't leave the insanity behind.

Why is it always United.
Except for when it's Southwest or Spirit.
- Ask the media. All airlines do this shit.

78 comments