Airlines sued for not accepting an obese passenger who later died

[Ferret_Herder]

@ramblingrosie

If you see what she looked like before she died, head all expanded like a huge water balloon, it’s obvious her kidneys weren’t working.

There’s a video showing her on the curb at an airport with her husband, and that’s a very accurate description of her. The other photos I saw didn’t have her nearly as distended as the video shows.

[Sally_Mander]

@WhyNot

If her kidney disease was progressed far enough, she may not have urinated much. Or at all. Some people with End Stage Renal Disease and/or Acute Kidney Failure don’t urinate at all, and just keep retaining water until they go to dialysis. And many people, kidney disease or not, don’t move their bowels every day. Or maybe she had an indwelling catheter or an urostomy, or wore adult diapers. So she may not have needed a bathroom.

Even with a catheter, the bag has to be emptied every so often, and diapers need to be changed. It was a Trans-Atlantic flight. I sure wouldn’t want to sit next to someone with a full diaper or a bag full of urine strapped to their leg for several hours.

[Rick]

@Ferret_Herder

There’s a video showing her on the curb at an airport with her husband, and that’s a very accurate description of her. The other photos I saw didn’t have her nearly as distended as the video shows.

Holy crap!
I flew a lot for 15 years and I have never seen an airline seat that would a accommodate her. Not to mention the aisles.
I have been on a 777 that had 1 lav that might have fit her. Maybe.

[WhyNot]

@Sally_Mander

Even with a catheter, the bag has to be emptied every so often, and diapers need to be changed. It was a Trans-Atlantic flight. I sure wouldn’t want to sit next to someone with a full diaper or a bag full of urine strapped to their leg for several hours.

I don’t particularly want to sit next to *anyone *on a plane for several hours. But there’s no health risk to it, even assuming she was still urinating. But after looking at that video, I strongly suspect she hadn’t voided in days…jeez, if I was the airline, I’d consider countersuing for subjecting my employees to the stress of having to deal with such an obviously acutely ill person without proper medical supervision.

[BigT]

Pay “out of pocket” doesn’t mean “pay right now before we’ll treat you,” right? Because that’s the only way I can remotely make sense of the decision they made. Even if they trusted their own doctor more. It would be like refusing the paramedics in an emergency because your PCP (primary care physician) doesn’t have hospital duty that day.

I came in expecting to feel sorry for this man. And I did for a bit. But now I’m over that. I can feel a little sorry for the woman, assuming she had mental issues. But not the perfectly mentally healthy husband.

[Kaio]

@WhyNot

I don’t particularly want to sit next to *anyone *on a plane for several hours. But there’s no health risk to it, even assuming she was still urinating. But after looking at that video, I strongly suspect she hadn’t voided in days…jeez, if I was the airline, I’d consider countersuing for subjecting my employees to the stress of having to deal with such an obviously acutely ill person without proper medical supervision.

I’m utterly agog that they stayed for a month, watched her gain over 60 pounds of fluid, and didn’t think that it was important to either get her to a freaking hospital, or at least cut the trip short so she could see her US doctor and get treatment.

60 pounds of fluid, in my mind, is a medical emergency. Why’d they let it get so bad? I’m not convinced she could have survived a trans-atlantic flight, even if they’d been able to get her on.