Mum slams airline after her son nearly died during flight
A family holiday almost turned to tragedy after 10-year-old Luca had a severe allergic reaction to a cashew nut served on an American Airlines flight from Aruba. Had it not been the quick-thinking actions of a nurse onboard the plane, Luca would have died.
“My son had serious anaphylaxis symptoms on our flight home last night,” Luca’s mother Francine wrote on Facebook.
“He ate one cashew from the nut mix he was served on our flight and within minutes he had severe stomach pain, chest pain and stridor breathing. If it was not for the quick-thinking stewardess on the plane, the nurse who administered the EpiPen and cared for him the entire trip and passengers who gave us their EpiPens this would have been fatal.
“We were not aware of any allergies that our son had with cashews before this flight. The pilots were prepared to do an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic.”
What’s worse, as Francine and Luca discovered, was that the flight was dangerously underprepared in the event of an allergic reaction.
“The scariest thing was that American Airlines did not have an EpiPen in their medical kits and served nuts on a plane? We need to change this.
“I am forever grateful [to] Nurse Kelly who saved my son’s life and sat with us the entire flight, the two passengers who gave us their EpiPens, the quick-thinking stewardess, the pilots and the paramedics who boarded the plane once we landed to check his vitals. Things could have been very different if it wasn’t for all these angels completely aligned.”
Speaking to Fox News after the terrifying incident, Francine criticised the airline for its lack of preparedness.
“American Airlines staff had their hands tied because they were limited on what they could do to save my son’s life since they had no medication to offer us from their medical kits,” she said.
“All they could offer was an emergency landing in the Dominican Republic, however it could have been fatal at that point.”
Despite this, American Airlines claimed in a statement that their medical kits do indeed contain epinephrine.
“We are grateful that Luca is OK and that our crew members and passengers, including a nurse, came together quickly to provide him the care he needed,” spokeswoman Michelle Mohr told Yahoo Lifestyle. “We hope he is feeling better and understand how frightening the reaction must have been for him and his mother.
“The medical kits on board our aircraft comply with federal regulations and contain Epinephrine – the same medicine contained in an EpiPen. Our professional flight attendants are familiar with the contents of the on-board kits. They are able to provide general first aid and are trained in CPR and using an AED. But we require a licensed medical professional to administer more extensive forms of treatment like injections for the health and safety of our customers.
“We are following up with our crew to thank them for moving quickly to take care of Luca and to learn more about the situation on board and how they managed it. We thank our crew members and our passengers on board for moving fast and working together to take care of Luca as quickly as possible.”
Image credit: Francine Val/Facebook.