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[99Luffy]

Do not internet-diagnose if you're not a medical professional. If you are a medical professional, you should already know not to write aut diagnoses based on vague internet information.

How about no. People are allowed to post about their own experiences.

 

[pureplayin2]

This is horrible and I'm glad her child is okay, but United seriously doesn't care. My financial Reporting class went to their hq on the 12th floor of the Willis Tower for a trip. It is literally 5ish min walk from my school. Without saying directly, they made it very clear that they would have dragged that man out of the plane all over again. They literally have a budget to pay people when these issues arise even though it is cheaper to treat people with care, respect and dignity. United will gladly pay this woman when her inevitable lawsuit comes. And they will rinse and repeat as they do not care about their customers!

 

[Nivash]

Symptoms sound very similar to a febrile seizure my infant son had once. I wonder if the infant was also fighting an infection. Very scary stuff, but a febrile seizure is normally ultimately harmless. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to immediately get help though.

Actually no, it sounds very much like heat exhaustion and potential heat stroke. The article says as much: the child had no underlying conditions.

Febrile seizures are usually harmless, true, but this is worse. Heat stroke is potentially deadly, and infants are particularly vulnerable to it as their ability to regulate temperature is much less developed than in adults. The article says it was 90 degrees in the shade and who knows how hot in the aircraft. Those are potentially dangerous temperatures for a small child.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heat-exhaustion-and-heatstroke/Pages/Introduction.aspx

The air crew did all they could, from the sound of it, and followed good procedures for heat exhaustion for anyone who isn't a medical professional. I don't think more could be asked personally of them. The problem is protocol. From the sound of it, they had two levels of escalation: taxiing to the gate for serious but not life threatening medical events, or stop and bring the ladders and a medical team for life threatening medical emergencies, like I imagine they would in case of a heart attack.

For whatever reason they thought this wasn't an immediately life threatening event, which is not something I'm sure I agree with if the child really was lapsing in and out of consciousness. Those are symptoms of severe heat stroke. They should have been taken in an ambulance sooner - it should have been clear by then what that was being done to cool the child down wasn't enough.

 

[JustAnotherMike]

A plane full of bodies plus the outside heat probably made that wait miserable for everyone.

It sucks that it takes a medical emergency to get anything done about it.

 

[soundahfekz]

on top of this there's always that one asshole who insists on keeping their window shade open

 

[tearsintherain]

Most jet planes are using external air to create cool compressed air that recycles inside the cabins. When on the ground the outside air is no different than the inside so nothing gets cooled. At 35k feet the outside air is like -50F so it provides mad AC. They can run something called an APU (aux power unit) that can provide some AC, but its actually not required that the APU even functions so it may have just been disabled. Some airports provide external APU to cool cabins at the gate but if the plane is out on the runway thats not an option.

A fucked up situation though and the passenger should have been allowed to deplane within 10 minutes of realizing the delay is gonna be longer than 30 mins and more importantly someone should have realized the baby is not well and recommended they fly another day, preferably at night. 4 month babies shouldn't be flying period, imo.

I thought some law got passed a while back that if a plane is sitting on the runway for more than 30 or 60 mins passengers have a right to deplane and even get compensation, that might be a european thing though.

 

[adamsapple]

"His whole body flashed red and his eyes rolled back in his head and he was screaming," France said. "And then he went limp in my arms. It was the worst moment of my life."

Holy shit .. I cannot even begin to imagine what would be going through a parent's mind when they feel their baby go limp in their arms.

I hope the baby doesn't have any lasting impacts of this and I sincerely hope she sues the shit out of United

 

[Widdle Puppy]

Fucking hate United. Piece of shit company.

 

[Horp]

The way you are treated from the start of security, to and on the plane, amd finally in customs is really bad generally. I get it, things are tense but man it's frustrating to be treated like cattle on a regular basis (I fly alot in my work).

Edit:
Let me clarify, Im drawing NO parallells between my experiences and the HORROR this mother and son went through.

 

[Waddle Dee]

Not even surprised it was United.

 

[superdeluxe]

United better fix this shit. This is a warning to parents. Don't fly with united

 

[Calamari41]

The entire point of modern air travel, from the minute you get out of your car at the departure airport until the minute you get in a taxi outside of your arrival airport, is an exercise in getting you used to being treated like subhuman cattle.

 

[Extra Sauce]

An alternate approach would have been to use the word "bomb" over and over.

 

[JasonUresti]

on top of this there's always that one asshole who insists on keeping their window shade open

That would make little difference. Also possible that person is battling anxiety brought on by claustrophobia or flying and that sight of the outside is a small little bit of comfort helping them get through it.