Monday, January 5, 2015

United Airlines Apologizes To 'Humiliated' Special Needs Mom

When New Jersey mom of four Elit Kirschenbaum boarded a December 30 flight home after her family vacation in the Dominican Republic, she seated her youngest daughter Ivy on her lap as usual, she told ABC News.
What followed was an ordeal with a flight attendant that Kirschenbaum says left her family "humiliated." The airline has since issued an apology for the incident, but the mom still thinks there's a lesson to be learned about the way transit companies treat passengers with special needs.
Three-year-old Ivy has Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy as the result of a stroke she suffered in utero. Because of her condition, the little girl physically cannot sit up on her own and rests on her parents' laps during flights.
On this particular United Airlines flight from Punta Cana to Newark, however, one flight attendant reportedly refused to allow the family's seating arrangement. In a Tumblr post about the ordeal, Kirschenbaum claims that she explained to the employee that her daughter has special needs and cannot hold herself up in a chair. The flight attendant continued to insist that Ivy sit in her own seat alone, the mom recalls.
Read more of Caroline Bologna's Huffington Post article HERE.

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