Etihad Airways has come out to defend itself over allegations of discriminating a Kenyan patient after they ejected Wangari Ndumia from a flight on Sunday 17.
Wangari was on her way to New Delhi, India, via Abu Dhabi, where she was scheduled to undergo surgery at BLK Hospital, to repair multiple broken bones on her left thigh and insertion of a prosthesis due to massive bone loss.
Etihad Airways Guest Relations Officer Zeinab Al Faytarouni came out to clarify that Wangari was not allowed to travel with them because ‘she was in too much pain’.
“Our staff called Medlink (a global health body responsible in handling in-flight medical cases) and informed them of Wangari's current condition and to a count of 1-10, Wangari’s pain was at nine,” explained Zeinab.
Zeinab went ahead to state that Wangari's inability to bend her leg necessitated Medlink to be involved to asses the situation.
No other seat was suitable for her to stretch her leg.
Zeinab continued to explain how the airline's staff had a hard time transferring Wangari from the wheelchair to her seat which she had been preassigned at row 20, and this forced the airline to swap them.
“Wangari couldn't sit comfortably as it was difficult for her to bend her knee which was fitted with an Ilizarov apparatus, therefore, obstructing the pathway for other guests,” explained Zeinab.
The Etihad staff were forced to contact Medlink for clearance as she was in a lot of pain and was making a lot of noise as she was being moved to her seat.
“At this point, Medlink had declined to clear her resulting to total offload and the same was explained to the guest as to why she was being offloaded,” Zeinab stated.
As of Tuesday 19, Wangari was still following up with the travel agents to get a refund for her to book another flight
