- The family of Gaby Assouline is suing Southwest Airlines for not assisting her.
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Gaby’s death is the latest in the airline industry’s long track record of broken equipment and bodies.
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A young woman has died after her wheelchair flipped while she was boarding a flight.
Gaby Assouline, 25, of South Florida, had fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, which turns muscle tissue to bone, and used a power wheelchair for distances. She became paralyzed in February 2022 when she hit a junction on a Southwest Airlines jet bridge, causing her chair to flip. She sustained quadriplegia and never left the hospital until her death on Jan. 22 of this year.
Southwest failed to provide Gaby with assistance, says the Assouline family’s lawyer, Robert C. Solomon. He says the airline claims Gaby turned down offers of help. “Their agents owed her the highest duty of care, and they completely failed her. And it’s upsetting to hear, ‘well, we’re gonna blame her.'”
“The way we are treated is inhumane,” says Jessika Maiz, a United Spinal Association member from South Florida. “I’ve had too many bad experiences flying. Something I used to love doing has become one of my biggest fears.”
Maiz wrote her elected representatives and contacted every airline that treated her poorly. “I’ve had to yell at TSA for treating me like an animal. When is it going to change? Let’s do this for Gaby.”
Read More: Flying the Unfriendly Skies
Airlines Have Failed Us
Wheelchair users being hurt or dying because of airline mishaps is unfortunately common. Disability advocate Engracia Figueroa developed a pressure wound after United Airlines destroyed her $30,000 customized wheelchair.
“I just thought about all of the independence that I fought, strived for and all that I successfully survived for soon to be 30 years. And by the minute, it’s stripped away,” Engracia told ABC 7 News in August 2021 about the incident. “I was completely disabled and traumatized, as well as hurt and exhausted.”
On Oct. 31, she died from the pressure wound that had reached her hip bone.
“It’s enraging,” says United Spinal’s Director of Advocacy and Policy Stephen Lieberman. “This is a massive, systemic problem that has resulted in too many deaths, too many injuries, and too many people feeling like they’re second-class citizens. And yet outside of our community, the awareness isn’t there. The whole country should want to fix this if they only knew what was happening.”
Fighting for dignified air travel that breaks neither wheelchairs nor bodies will be a centerpiece of United Spinal’s advocacy in 2023. Join our Grassroots Advocacy Network to receive action alerts, our newsletter and notifications of our events.