American Airlines Apologizes for Booting a Mother and Baby With a Dry Skin Condition
Rare Disease Day is meant to raise awareness about exactly
the kind of genetic skin condition that Jordan Flake shares with her 1-year-old
son, Jackson.
The international observance on Thursday put the spotlight
on “orphan diseases,” disorders that affect a small percentage of the
population.
Although Flake said she was glad her skin condition has
garnered attention, she expressed dismay at an incident that took place on an
airplane.
“I have never been so humiliated in my life,” Flake wrote
Thursday in a Facebook post, claiming American Airlines Phone
Number discriminated against her and her child by removing them from a
South Carolina-bound flight from Texas. American Airlines said it is looking
into the incident and has offered an apology.
Flake could not
immediately be reached for comment.
After spending time with her husband before his deployment,
Flake and her son began their journey home to Columbia — checking their
luggage, passing through security and settling into their seats on the plane,
she wrote on Facebook and LoveWhatMatters.com.
“We boarded our flight where everyone smiled and talked to
Jackson,” she recalled in her blog posts.
That changed as the
plane readied for takeoff.
Flake wrote on Facebook that an American Airlines employee
asked the men in the adjacent seats to get up, then “quietly asked me about ‘my
rash’ and if I had a letter from a doctor stating it was ok for me to fly.
"I explained to
him that it was called Ichthyosis and it was a genetic skin condition.”
According to the American Airlines
Customer Service Academy of Dermatology, ichthyosis is a skin disease
that may be inherited or develop from a gene mutation and causes “extremely
dry, thick, and scaly skin. The skin often looks like it has fish scales.”
Ichthyosis is not contagious.
Flake said the airline employee Googled the condition and
returned to the crew standing near the jet bridge, where they had a brief
discussion.
“He came back and said he apologized, but we ‘wouldn’t be
able to fly,’ and we ‘had to get off the plane,’" Flake recounted, adding
that the employee, who was called by the attendant crew, was “very helpful and
mad about the situation.”
Even with his help, Flake was unable to retrieve her checked
baggage, she said, and she and her son had to stay at a hotel overnight.
American Airlines
said the company aims to create a “welcoming environment” for its customers.
“We sincerely apologize to Ms. Flake and her son for the
experience they had Thursday, and our team has begun an investigation into the
matter,” the airline said in a statement Saturday to The Washington Post.
After the incident, Flake wrote on LoveWhatMatters.com that
she had “never felt more aware and embarrassed about my skin, or the condition
I share with my son.”
“I should never feel ashamed of myself for the way I was
born,” she continued. “This was unacceptable and uncalled for. I have never
been asked to show a letter. I have never been told by a doctor that I had to
have documentation stating I wasn’t contagious, or whatever they were assuming.
In 2019, it’s time we stop discriminating. Ask questions, and listen.
“If anything comes out of this, I hope it’s that whatever
individual put this into action realizes they were wrong and unkind, and will
think twice next time. If I am not to judge people based on their gender, skin
color, or relationship status, then I should not be judged based off of the way
I was born.”
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