A woman that suffers with a severe peanut allergy had always arranged her flights in advance, specifically requesting that an announcement be made on the plane's PA system for other passengers. However, during one leg of the trip when the announcement was not made, she ended up being taken to a hospital, as reported by News 10.
The woman, Sacramento resident A.G., has filed a personal injury lawsuit against United Airlines as they had assured her that there would not be a problem. Instead, due to her reaction, they were also forced to make an emergency landing.
A.G. said, "Basically, your lungs are collapsing. It's like an anaconda around your lungs, and every time you breathe it closes in and doesn't open."
A.G. had been traveling with her family to Florida to enjoy a vacation at Disneyworld.
According to A.G. she had called the airlines, outlined her allergy, and was told that it would be fine. A.G. said, "He said, 'no problem. We don't serve anything with peanuts in it on our flight because we know about peanut allergies.' I said, 'Well, can they make an announcement because I know you can't control the public,' and they said, yes."
Once onboard a flight attendant told A.G. that there would be no announcement, and luckily, the flight was incident-free and the family enjoyed their vacation. However, on the flight home J.G., A.G.'s husband, said that the flight crew was not cooperative at all.
J.G. said, "You start holding up the line, and then they started getting agitated because you're holding up the line…Got my kids seated, and when he came down, we're like she's severely allergic. 'We have a lot of people who are allergic,' he says, 'she'll be fine; just try to calm down.' He goes, 'are you sure it's not anxiety?'"
Then sometime during the flight, four rows away from where A.G. was seated, a woman started eating peanuts. A.G. described what happened next: "I was just sitting in my seat, and then all of a sudden the air basically around me went away. I just stopped breathing."
A.G. tried to handle the attack with her inhaler and medicaton. Eventually she was given oxygen. A.G. said that at this time "[The flight attendant] asked the male nurse, 'can she make it to Chicago?' And he replied, 'how long?' She said, '40 minutes.' And he said, 'no she'll die.'"
The plane made an emergency landing in Missouri. A.G. was admitted to a hospital and languished for two days in an ICU unit.
J.G. said that he spoke with the woman that had eaten the peanuts. It's a conversation he said he would never forget. J.G. said, "She says, 'if they would have said something, I never would have opened these; how come somebody didn't say something?'"
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