A United Airlines passenger on a flight from Houston to Cincinnati has criticized the airline for not cutting the flight short when a woman had a seizure shortly after take-off.
Amy Hammond, of Mason, Ohio, described in a Facebook posting how a fellow passenger travelling with her young son passed out shortly after the plane started its ascent Sunday.
"The HERO in front of her, hopped back and started yelling for a doctor," Hammond wrote. "No one came. Do we turn around? No!" wrote Hammond.
She wrote that the woman came round, before starting to have a series of seizures over the course of the two hour ten minute flight.
"She had seizures and passed out the entire flight — dozens of times — from take off till landing!" Hammond claimed. "Over 2 hours!" She said the passenger she described as the woman's "hero" continuously worked to revive her "while drinks were carried over him in the aisle."
She said he had identified himself as a firefighter, and a second passenger, who said he had medical training, also came to the woman's assistance.
In video Hammond took of the incident, the woman can be seen apparently convulsing while the pilot announces the landing time is 30 minutes away over the intercom.
"Hey, you gotta wake up, hey," says a man seated next to her, who helps lift her and reposition her in her seat.
In the post, Hammond writes that by the time the plane landed the woman "did not know who the president was or the month or day of the week."
Hammond said that while disembarking she confronted the pilot about why he hadn't turned the plane around when the woman fell ill.
"The pilot said he made the decision," Hammond wrote. "I told him we had to watch a young mom convulse and pass out over and over for 2 hours!"
In a statement, the airline said that the pilot made the decision after consulting with medics on board.
"The safety of our customers is our first and highest priority," Republic Airlines spokesman Jon Austin told Fox News in an email. "The decision to continue to the flight's destination was made by our crew who did the right thing by working with medical personnel onboard, with our on-call medical service provider and with input from the passenger. Had it been the judgment of the medical professionals that another course of action was indicated, we would have followed that recommendation immediately.
"We're grateful to all of our passengers who assisted in responding to their fellow passenger's situation, including the numerous medical professionals on board who volunteered their services when asked."
The airline faced widepsread criticism in 2017, when footage showing a doctor being forcefully dragged from a flight from Chicago by law enforcement officers went viral. The man had refused to get off the flight and give up his seat to United Airlines staff member, and received a financial settlement from the airline after suffering concussion, a broken nose, and losing his two front teeth
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