She might have been seeing some sort of specialist in the States, and wasn’t comfortable seeing anyone else.
However, if she didn’t like the medical care at her destination, and if she was in such fragile health, she probably shouldn’t have been traveling.
I’m really confused. She could not board the plane in Hungary, and they told her to go to Prague where there was a larger aircraft. They went to Prague, but could not fit on that one, either. So according to the GMA story, they drove back to Hungary to try a Lufthansa flight? And then she died sitting around 2 days later?
Prague is ONE HOUR from the German border. They could have gone to Dresden or Freiburg. Or, if even those weren’t good enough, it’s 3 hours to Munich or Berlin, where I can guarantee they have top-notch hospitals and at least a few doctors who speak English. Once they made the stupid decision to travel while she was that ill, they put themselves in a position to get in trouble, but once that trouble happened, they did have other options. I’m totally baffled by why they refused all European medical care if the situation was that dire.
And that wasn’t even “the number”. The case was appealed, and later both sides settled for an undisclosed amount. The media just loves to hype the biggest number associated with the case because everybody loves raging about litigation gone amok.
Maybe she didn’t have travel insurance and couldn’t afford to pay out of pocket for treatment in Hungary. She needed to get back to the US where she was covered.
Therefore, it’s Obama’s fault.
But those were all in countries with socialized medicine so, you know, death panels.
I laughed, and would like a dedication verse added to “DumbWays2Die.”
They could have changed her seats with the pair of seats that fronts the entry door to the plane. The pair of people sitting there could have been moved to wherever her seats were.
Or she could have continued to Britain, gone to Southampton and picked up a Cunard lines ship to NY and traveled in comfort.
People get very attached to their doctors, she was returning to the US to go to her specialist [renal? internalist?] and believe me, when you have a great relationship with your personal doctor, having to go to a total stranger, have to go through the entire dog and pony show of the exact issue, current treatment status, and in her case being so hugely obese her embarrassment at the possible abuse from the medical staff can make the idea of going to a strange medical facility horrifying. And I do realize that medical staff are supposed to be saints, but I have sat across from a doctor and been told to stop sitting on my ass watching tv and eating candy when I was maintaining my A1C totally by diet and exercise at that point in time for almost 20 years.
Yes she should have gotten treatment in Hungary, and yes she should have headed back to the US before her health tanked. People do stupid shit.
I laughed, but I feel bad about it.
Having been inside a Budapest hospital (I had an ill relative there for a while), while the facilities aren’t the shiny-new ones you might get in the US, Hungarian healthcare is perfectly competent. And as already noted, if she didn’t like it she was only a short ride from a number of other countries with good care facilities.
It’s a sad story but I’m not seeing how it’s the airlines’ fault.
No sympathy whatsoever. Hungary is not the third world and the doctors there are perfectly capable of administering emergency treatment or even arranging emergency evacuation to surrounding EU countries should they prove incapable of treating the patient.
But: she shouldn’t have even been allowed on the first flight to Hungary. A passenger that size poses a clear risk to other passengers in case of emergency evacuation of the aircraft.
Not in the planes I’ve been using these last few weeks, she wouldn’t have fit. There is a sort of panel in front of those seats, so they have as much legroom as the rest.
The attorney teaching my engineering law class covered that case.
McDonald’s was serving coffee at a temperature far too hot, and numerous people had been burned. McDonald’s new that it was too hot, they had paid off other plaintiffs, but had just decided it was the cost of doing business.
The woman originally had only asked for only her medical bills, which McDonald’s had refused to pay.
While this case has been the poster child for bad judgments, it wasn’t. It was eventually settled for less than $600,000.
You can read about it here. (pdf)
if there was blimp service available she might have been saved.
Too bad. When you’re traveling, having to see a doctor other than the one you usually use is always a possibility. She shouldn’t have been traveling if she wasn’t willing to face that risk.
I think this couple got distracted, and focused too much on “getting home” rather than “getting help.” She probably could have been returned to the US via air ambulance, but that probably wasn’t something they could have arranged on their own. A hospital could have begun the process, though, and maybe the US Embassy could have as well. I wonder if they ever tried to contact the embassy for assistance?
I am generally on the side of the heavy passenger in these sorts of situations, but in this case it looks like the woman was genuinely unable to be transported back to the US by a commercial passenger flight. She should have gone to a hospital in Europe to stabilize her condition while alternative transport arrangements were being arranged.
It seems like the couple fixated on getting a regular commercial flight to go home. Would they have been able to arrange some sort of emergency medical evacuation if they have twigged earlier that she was in danger of dying?
Or something like this.
If so, this is part of the inherent risk of travelling to foreign countries. Again, not the airline’s responsibility to rescue her from her poor decision.
Do you mean the bulkhead seats? They’re usually reserved for passengers who are able-bodied, able to help with evacuating the plane and not likely to hinder other passengers from leaving. I’ve been moved from them before because I had a small child with me. Putting a morbidly obese one-legged woman there would be against good safety practice.
Nope. Those seats are exit row and she obviously NOT qualified to sit there. Plus the arm rests don’t fold down because the tray table is stored in the armrest so the seat is a bit narrower than a standard seat.
I would also like to add that the seats closest to the entrance/exit door on transatlantic flights would probably also be first or business class, which means they would be single seats that would definitely not have been suitable for her, even if they could persuade the people who have paid for the extra comfort (or had their employer pay) to sit in economy instead.
I was thinking the same thing. That woman “scalded her crotch” is not the right phrase. I believe her labia was almost melted and fused together. I read the details somewhere else - even more detailed than that pdf link - and it was awful. Even the link you have says she was permanently disfigured.
As to the couple in the OP, it pisses me off more and more that I think about it. As if airlines aren’t expensive enough. Now this woman’s stupidity is going to translate to all of us in higher costs - if the man sues and wins, who’s going to pay for it? In the end, all of us.
I know I sound heartless, but while it is sad, I don’t see any way the airline could have accomodated her.
