artemis

I wonder whether the couple lacked medical insurance which would cover care given while outside the US? That may be an (unstated) reason why they were so insistent on flying back to America to receive care, instead of being emergently treated in Europe.

holtju2

I really cannot see how an airline can be sued for not transporting a pax like this and blamed for death?



The image is linked from the newspaper article above.

airships

The articles describe how "the fire brigade and technical experts" tried for thirty minutes, unsuccessfully, to get her seated. And that was at a gate, with the lights on, the aircraft right-side-up, and no smoke or panic. Now imagine an emergency evacuation, with a hundred people trying to exit the aircraft in thirty SECONDS, perhaps with smoke and fire or with the aircraft lying on its side with structural damage.

This woman would have been a safety risk to everyone on that plane in an emergency.

N830MH

Wow! She's big!! It's disgusting!! She ate too much foods. That's why she got sick. She doesn't do exercise very well. She never was.

Right, the airline is not their fault for her death. They didn't blame them. She had it rights to be on transporting. Unfortunately, there's was no way to put her in the aircraft. She is not physically. She didn't have a disability rights.

slawecki

i fly every now and then. even to texas. i have never seen an obese person like her on a plane, even in two seats. you know 425's that fly regularly? where i find them? in single seats in coach? gimmie a break. i've seen big people in coach, i have never suffered the misery of sitting next to a 425 lb er, never.

fwoomp

I'd wondered the same thing. However, the article says the husband is a security guard for the Staten Island Ferry, which is part of the NYC Dept. of Transportation. Although there have been attempts to trend away from this in many places, generally one gets pretty good benefits from a government job as a trade-off for the lower salary. Note also that he can take off work for several weeks of vacation all at once...

I suspect that if my horrible, high-deductible, individual market plan reimburses for treatment abroad (and it does), this guy's policy offered by the NYC government would. But one never knows.

mapleg

Yowser! I cannot imagine why anyone would think it is a good idea to make a transatlantic trip to spend some time in a European vacation home when you see the shape this woman was in. What on earth were she and her husband thinking ?

I also note that they are confident enough to go to Hungary, stay there, eat there (obviously), but not confident enough in their medical system to seek treatment there (and let's face it, whatever their medical care was in the US prior to this did not exactly solve this woman's medical condition)

Sorry, but her husband is obviously looking for a scapegoat, but he and his wife should shoulder most, if not all the blame for what happened.

mapleg

You really think any insurance company on the planet would have covered that risk?

deadinabsentia

Woman has no business trying to get accommodated on public transport.
Airline seats are small enough as it is for "regular" people. She needed a medevac (though unsure she'd fit thru the door of that). She made her life choice, and life made its choice.

[Inappropriate text edited by Moderator.]

KenS

This is a tragedy on so many levels that obviously started years ago.

I feel sorry for this woman's family, but this couple obviously made several bad decisions in a row that led to this unhappy end.

I typed and typed and typed and I've deleted it all... too many obvious things to state regarding this sad case.

Santander

In the end, this has nothing to do with obesity or health or disability or even safety. It is simply a case of physical size. Imagine if every human on that flight were a self-propelled (or perhaps motorised wheelchair-propelled) piece of cargo. Would there be such a furore if a piece of cargo had to be transported alternately because it could not fit on the plane? That just the reality of this woman's situation.

Her death wasn't caused by the airlines, it was caused (or at least certainly not prevented) by the fact her and her husband were stupid enough to refuse healthcare in an EU and OECD (i.e. developed) country when she needed it. It's not the fat American tourists giving America a bad name, it's the stupid ones.

uszkanni

So I now wonder if some ADA affiliated group will push for a requirement on the part of US airlines to have one row in the larger non-regional planes set aside for extremely obese passengers. Maybe the last row of Y on one side of the aircraft would be configured as an extra large single seat with the row ahead removed to create a large enough space to allow COS to be seated. I doubt that removing four or six seats to accommodate one COS (and maybe one other pax) would be considered a "reasonable accommodation" under the ADA, but you never know.

A side question. How does a pax as heavy and seemingly immobile as the lady in the article use the lav? Perhaps that's a subject best left unexplored.

ryanthekiwi

The article suggested that she gained weight during her time in Hungary. Looking at the photo posted this makes sense as her shirt seems to fit very poorly. My first thought was that since the airline got her there, they needed to get her home, but if she really gained a significant amount of volume while away it seems reasonable that she wasn't able to make it home. Sad but not the airline's fault.

998R

I think that Hungary is a country in which you can find fair healthcare establishments, and Wien is only 250km far from Budapest.

Scrooge McDuck

Well said. ^ And this is the point where the mobility issue comes into play. No wonder why the airlines refused to transport her. Just imagine an emergency situation in which she manages to get into the isle by herself and then fails to move on. Frankly said, I really don't want to be in the same isle during such an incident.