Horrified mom says United Airlines demanded she remove disabled sons ventilator before take-off: So humiliated
The things a mother will go through for her child.A woman named Melissa Sotomayor was shocked at how United Airlines treated her disabled son on a recent flight home from Tampa, Florida to New Jersey.Sotomayor took to TikTok — in a now viral video with over 1 million views — to share her very sad experience.She began the video explaining her son’s condition: “My son is dependent upon a trach, short for tracheostomy, and ventilator.
He has vision and hearing problems.”The mother went on to explain that in order to fly safely, she made sure to have all of her son’s medical documents ready to show — if necessary.Sotomayor and her baby flew to Florida without a hitch — but it was on the way back that the trouble began.
“A male flight attendant approached me and stated that I needed to take my son off the ventilator and the portable oxygen concentrator because they needed to be secured for takeoff,” she explained.After explaining to the flight attendant that the equipment is what’s keeping her son alive, he then asked Sotomayor for documentation — which she provided for him.One would think the story stops there — think again.
Sotomayor explained in her video that two more flight attendants — and the captain — approached her with the same sentiment regarding the medical equipment.From the sounds of it, the flight’s crew did not ease up on Sotomayor, despite her having proof that she is allowed to keep her son’s critical medical equipment on it.
“He’ll be okay until we’re in the air at a high enough altitude,” a cold United staffer told her.Seeing how adamant Sotomayor was being about her son’s situation, the crew warned her that she might need to move seats if she wasn’t willing to comply.After being taxied for an hour, other fliers started to chime in, calling Sotomayor’s mistreatment by the airline staff “harassment.” Even more back and forth took place between the crew and the mother — and still, no apology to ...