A disabled woman claims she was thrown from her wheelchair after airline staff refused to help her, leaving her paralysed.
Gaby Assouline, 24, from Florida, US, who suffers from a muscle disease, says staff at Southwest Airlines refused to help her down a jet bridge in her wheelchair, court papers say.
She then suffered catastrophic injuries after falling over, it's understood, which have left her unable to speak.
Gaby was travelling from South Florida to Denver in February when she asked for someone to push her wheelchair down the corridor, according to a Broward County lawsuit.
She claims a Southwest supervisor at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport didn't help her and that she was left to travel down the jet bridge alone, the New York Post reports.
She is now paralysed from the neck down after being “thrown” from the wheelchair before landing on her head.
Her mother, Sandra Assouline, says her daughter cracked her vertebrae and now has to use a feeding tube.
Gaby already suffered with Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), a rare and incurable genetic condition that gradually replaces connective tissues, tendons, ligaments and muscles by turning them into extra skeletal bone.
Of an estimated 4,000 affected individuals worldwide, there are approximately just 900 known patients.
Her mother has now set-up a GoFundMe page after the incident which has already received over £94,000.
On the page, she wrote: “She can’t speak because she has a tube down her throat, and she has no movement below her neck.
"The fear and pain she is showing in her eyes when she wakes up in those brief moments of clarity is too much to bear.
“After the hospital, she will need to be moved to a live-in inpatient rehab facility where she will learn to live with her new reality.
“Gaby will need occupational, speech, physical, psychological, and many other therapies in order to regain what she’s lost.”
Southwest spokesman Chris Perry told the Dallas Morning News : “Southwest Airlines’ primary priority is the safety of our people and customers both on the ground and in the air.
“We have reviewed the customer’s initial account of her travel experience and have offered a response directly to those involved.”
The suit is demanding that Southwest pay for Gaby's medical care and compensate her for the suffering she's experiencing.
To donate to the GoFundMe page, press here.
