In any case, your mistake was not flying with them or having someone else travel with them, particularily with a heart condition.
Totally with you on this one.
You tried to save money by booking them on AirTran and did not fly with them.
If you would have routed them with UA through ORD, they would have had translators available. Even if your language was not avilable, maybe Lufthansa (in the same terminal) could have helped out.
P.S. Here, we have another person who joined to FT just to rant and then does not even follow up.