That is, a pox on people who bring very sick babies on a plane.
We flew to Kauai just over a week ago and sat one row behind a couple who brought on board a very sick 20 month old toddler. In the first place, this baby screamed nonstop the whole five hours, and despite her illness, she had a powerful set of lungs. After five hours of “SHHHHRRRIEEEEK! NONONONONO! [cough, cough, cough] SHHHHHRRRRIEK! NONONONONO! MOMMY! SHHHHRRIEEEEEEK!”, I landed with a throbbing headache. A lot of the time, they held the baby so she was looking over the parents’ shoulders and coughing in our direction. And now, Mr. brown and I have simultaneously come down with vicious sore throats and the beginning of a cough.
Whoinhell would bring a sick, congested baby on a long flight? I’ve heard that the changing air pressure is agonizing to anyone with clogged-up ears, and babies are too young to know how to yawn to equalize the pressure. It’s not as if it was their return flight to the mainland, which would be hard to put off; it was the outbound flight. I would have delayed a vacation rather than drag along a sick-as-a-dog toddler, both for her sake and for the sake of the health of the other passengers.
I feel for you from the bottom of my heart. When we moved back from Oahu, I spent the entire flight seated in front of a 6-month old. Even tho I don’t have (want, or like) kids, I do understand that the poor thing didn’t understand why her ears hurt. However, why take a baby that young to Hawaii anyway? It’s not like she’s going to remember the trip, and her parents will miss out on a lot because of having to care for the baby. I am dreadfully afraid of flying, and all I could think of (beside how bad my head hurt and how bad I wanted a cig.) was “this plane is going to go down and my last thoughts will be of a screaming rugrat.”
That’s awful. My sympathies. For next time, remember that you can pick up bugs from sick travellers all over the plane because of the recirculated air. I’ve always been taught that you can reduce the chances of getting sick on a flight by not turning on the little breeze nozzle above your head.
Just out of curiosity, how would a flight crew react if a passenger were to put on a surgical mask after boarding, citing a not-unreasonable concern about infection?
They were returning from a vacation. I know because they talked about it the entire trip. She spent most of the 8 days in the hotel room with the baby while he went golfing. From the tone of the conversation, she did not enjoy her “vacation” very much and he did not care very much.
The sick person is always there when you’re going away on vacation, it seems. Never when you’re coming back. I once spent 10 days in Greece completely stopped up and hacking and sneezing not enjoying anything. THANKS A LOT, ANONYMOUS COLD BEARER.
Not that I’ve let sickness keep me from flying in the past. Sometimes you just can’t avoid it. But I always feel bad, while I get the feeling a lot of people don’t.
Almost every single time I fly I come down with a cold immediately after. Because of the recirculated air, the germs are a-flowing. Also, we’re touching hundreds of germ-infested surfaces. Ick.
I hate flying. I always get sick. I swear, I got mono from a plane flight once. Also, I am not at all tolerant of people who let their kids scream and be a nuisance in public places.
But really, what were they supposed to do? Put the baby in a pet carrier and stow it down in the baggage compartment? Delay their return until the baby was all better? Undoubtedly they had to get home to go to work, etc. And it costs money–often a lot of money–to change flight plans at the last minute.
I’m sorry you got sick, and I sympathize. But it’s one of the hazards of air travel.
Good question. In my case, the people in question sat near us in the waiting area at the airport, and were asking each other, “Did you remember to ask the desk to put a crib in the room?”
And my gripe had to do with bringing a very sick baby along on vacation, not the fact that folks fly with little kids. We put on our tolerance hats if we have to sit near restless or noisy (healthy) kids and we survive. I’m also just griping because I got sick from the incident, I have to go to work because I have no sick time, and I feel like crap.
Reading this thread is making me go all Adrian Monk. I feel like bringing some antiseptic wipes and next time I fly and wiping down all surfaces before I touch anything. And a surgical mask, too. I don’t want to arrive at a vacation place and immediately come down with the flu!
No kidding. When I travel by plane, I wear long pants and long sleeves, and try to make as little contact with others and surfaces as possible. I swear, I can feel the body grease and skin flakes in the upholstery of the seats, and taste the germs in the air. Puke.
Last time I flew back to Japan from a to visit family and friends in the US, there was some person with horrible incredibly rank gas who, I swear to Og, did not stop farting for the entire fucking 11 hour flight. Normal farts: nasty but bearable, and understandable given pressure differentials inherent in flying. These farts: room clearing, marriage destroying, nose-hair singing, eye watering, putrescent pungencies. You know how your sense of smell usually adjusts eventually, so that bad smells don’t seem to be so bad after a while? These ones lingered for minutes, hanging in the air in almost-visible billows of bile inducing stench. Every one was as bad as the one before.
Add the two, count 'em, 2 squalling demon-children who slept for about 20 minutes of the flight, just before being awakened by landing procedures, and the four or five hacking, sneezing, nose-dabbing convalescents sharing the cabin, and I was ready to never ever get on a plane again. Both I and my girlfriend had a sore throat and a fever by the next day. Unfortunately, the snotty nose hadn’t set in soon enough to give us some relief from whoever had stuffed Lemmiwinks up his ass and let him die and rot in there.
I hate large groups of people. I hate traveling in planes. I hate large groups of people on planes with a passion I normally reserve for great-grandmothers driving 35 in the fast lane. I wonder how long it will be before some really nasty plague is given a chance to invade most of the industrialized world in one of those mobile pressure-cookers of virii and people realize that routine health screening prior to flying might be a good idea. I guess SARS wasn’t scary enough to do that.