Posted on 04/25/2018 10:23:04 PM PDT by Morgana
ATLANTA (CBS Local) – A woman with multiple sclerosis says Delta employees tied her to a wheelchair after the airline failed to provide her with the appropriate handicapped services her family had requested.
Maria Saliagas was reportedly diagnosed with MS five years ago and is now unable to sit up in a chair on her own. On April 1, the woman and her husband traveled from Atlanta to Amsterdam, where a wheelchair with specially designed straps was supposed to be waiting for her after the flight.
According to the couple’s son, who says he planned their trip with Delta and was promised the special wheelchair, the airline did not have the proper chair ready when Saliagas arrived.
“They took a dirty blanket and tied her forcefully with it, and she has bruise marks on her arm where it was tight,” Nathan Saliagas said, via KCCI.
(Excerpt) Read more at philadelphia.cbslocal.com ...
She seeketh the soothing balm of the greenback poultice.
Terrible treatment, but she wasn’t traveling alone. Right?
Did her husband do anything to try making her more comfortable? The article says nothing about her husband except that he was with her.
If that particular kind of chair was so essential, they may have been better off rescheduling for a later flight.
No indication if that option was offered.
Strapping made on the spot with a blanket would qualify as "specially designed straps." I am more worried that they were apparently out of duct tape.
Those passing out the apple should have advised the passengers that the fruit had to be eaten on the plan and cannot be taken out, due to produce restrictions. I think she has a case if they did not.
Different story
Of course, if the woman had fallen out of the wheelchair due to poor strapping, the $$ would go through the roof.
Same airline. Somehow I went from Delta’s disabled woman story to their $500 apple episode:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3649643/posts?page=1
My give-a-damn meter does not even twitch.
If I were on this jury, I would just laugh.
Although Amsterdam does not have to
abide by ADA rules, the airline
does. If the passengers itinerary
included a specialty wheelchair
(bought and paid for, and with a
promise) the airline is responsible.
Someone dropped the ball.
Were they charged for the cost of the wheelchair, or did they expect the airline to provide it for the price of a regular ticket?
They have to provide adequate and appropriate services. The costs of wheelchairs, etc are covered by the airline, and ultimately paid by every traveler. Just like carrying baby carriages, mobility scooters, the wheelchairs at all the airports, etc.
How were they able to do this if her husband was there?
The ADA doesn’t require unreasonable steps. Buying custom wheelchairs in any city to which a passenger may decide to travel is unreasonable. Standard wheelchairs would be reasonable, and one was provided.
Single use custom equipment may not be covered. The ADA, while it comes close, does not provide a blank check to the disabled.
Planned with whom? A travel agent? Delta? If it was the former, how's Delta on the hook? And if it's the latter, the son better hope any comms with Delta back up his version.
FWIW, I smell a rat.
And it goes on and on..........
snip
An aisle chair — which is designed for in-flight use — was used to help
Saliagas off the plane. Once off the aircraft, according to Delta, several
wheelchair options were offered to Saliagas and she picked one. After being
seated in the wheelchair, Saliagas said she was “slipping,” prompting the
wheelchair assistant to suggest using blankets as a way to secure her to
the chair. Saliagas agreed and the blankets were then removed from their
original packaging, according to the airline.
She’s looking for some money too!
Actually, I think it is possible to have her own wheelchair sent on the flight, just like an extra piece of luggage. I can understand them feeling concerned about it getting lost in the airlines luggage system (as happens often enough).
But, my own experience with airlines is they do not have a good grip on lots of different special instructions. They seem to be NOT well integrated with everything else, even without flags in other places to indicate there is a special instruction on record for the customer.
I have an ID for getting TSA-Pre treatment at the airline security screening process at the airport. I can’t even count the number of times an airline reservation process either failed to get that information from me, or got the information from me but then ignored it when printing the boarding pass.
I have flown with people who needed and reserved special seating, and then more than once arrived in the plane to find they had double booked the same seating and our seats were already occupied with other persons who had tickets for them.
I have flown with people who needed wheelchair assistance getting on and off the plane, with that noted when the reservation was made. And then without the airline staff knowing it when we arrived for the flight. One time, they forgot she had come onto the plain with wheelchair assistance, had no plans to get her one when we arrived, and finally came asking why we were still sitting in our seats and had not left the plane yet.
“Special instructions” with airlines seem to have their own special file even airline staff don’t know about or ignore.
Figured as much
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