Airline Kicks Mom With Cancer and Her Family Off Plane
Alaska Airlines has apologized to a cancer-stricken mom who it kicked off a recent flight traveling from Hawaii to California for insisting she obtain a doctor’s note to fly – after video footage of the incident went viral.
Elizabeth Sedway, 51, of Granite Bay, California, has multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that originates in the plasma cells and accumulates in the bone marrow, according to the Mayo Clinic. As a result of her condition, Sedway wore a surgical mask for the Monday flight home to avoid breathing in germs that might harm her fragile immune system. The mask caught the attention of crew who informed Sedway that she couldn’t fly without getting cleared by her doctor. She and her family were removed from the plane.
That same day, Sedway uploaded the video to her Facebook page. She captioned it: “Today, we were at gate 8 ready to depart on Alaska Airlines for San Jose. An airline employee saw me seated in the handicap section of the boarding area. She asked me if I needed anything. The first time. I said no. The second time, I said, well I might need a bit of extra time to board, sometimes I feel weak. Because I said the word weak, the Alaska Airlines employee called a doctor, she claimed was associated with the airlines. After we board the plane. An Alaska representative boarded the plane, and told us I could not fly without a note from a doctor stating that I was cleared to fly. The video is of us being removed from the plane.”
The video has been viewed more than 20,000 times and shared 160 times on Facebook. And on Twitter, one commenter criticized the airline for “abusing customers.” Perhaps the most unfortunate part of the experience: “I am scheduled for chemo, at home, on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Sedway wrote on her Facebook page. “Because of this, I will miss my chemotherapy, my children will miss school, and my husband will miss important meetings.” The family caught a return flight home the following day.
“It was shocking. I mean I’ve flown, we’ve flown for five years with this diagnosis, and I felt humiliated,” Sedway told local news station CBS SF.
Bobbie Egan, media relations director for Alaska Air sent the following statement to Yahoo Parenting: “We regret the inconvenience Ms. Sedway experienced [on Monday]. Her family’s tickets have been refunded and we’ll cover the cost of her family’s overnight accommodations in Lihue. Our employee had the customer’s well-being in mind when we sought the advice of trained medical professionals.”
Sedway has found the positive side of the situation. After Sedway thanked her supporters on Facebook, she wrote, “As with most unpleasant times, there are silver linings, if we’re determined to find them. Here, we plan to donate the airfare, to be refunded by Alaska Airlines, to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation – MMRF. Additionally, this airline will likely look at future events of this kind with increased wisdom and sensitivity.”
