A California nurse is planning to sue Southwest Airlines after being removed from her flight due to a rare medical condition that physically resembles an infectious disease. Compassion is called for…but also some hard truth.
Nurse Kicked Off Southwest Airlines Flight For Skin Condition Plans To Sue The Airlines
43-year-old Brianna Solari was left “humiliated” after being asked to step off her Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank (BUR) to Sacramento (SMF). Solari suffers from a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis (NF) which causes non-cancerous tumors to grow on the skin. She was in the Los Angeles area for surgery to remove some of those tumors and tried to get home to Sacramento the following day.
She boarded her flight and settled into her seat. However, just before takeoff a Southwest Airlines flight attendant approached her and asked her to step off the plane. Off the aircraft, she was asked by a gate agent if she “suffered from a disease.”
“Specifically chickenpox was mentioned and I said, ‘Well, no, I just had surgery.’ Then she got on the phone with somebody and said, ‘We’re going to need you to get checked out by emergency medical services before we let you back on the plane.'”
Here’s where it gets tricky. Solari claims she offered to let Southwest Airlines staff review her hospital discharge paperwork. They refused. She then offered to speak with Southwest’s telemedical doctor on the phone, but the doctor refused.
Eventually, she obtained a hastily-prepared note from her surgeon and was rebooked on the next flight, departing several hours later. She was also provided a $500 voucher for future travel on Southwest Airlines as an apology and given a $45 meal voucher for her wait.
Solari says she won’t fly with Southwest again…
“Why would I give them my time and money when they have treated me so poorly? It was humiliating. It almost made me feel dehumanized. And then to not even be able to speak with their medical professional about my condition, it’s very violating — my medical privacy was violated.”
This Is A Hard Case
As someone who also has a genetic skin condition (though thankfully not visible), I have a great deal of empathy for Solari. I happen to know another nurse who suffers from the same condition and it is a tough card to be dealt in life…
But put yourself in the shoes of Southwest Airlines. First, this is a rare condition. Second, it does look like something very infectious. Third, it was not wrong to gently ask for clarification.
The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) states that a passenger cannot be denied boarding absent posing a direct threat, yet that can be reasonably established, as Southwest appears to have done:
§ 382.19 May carriers refuse to provide transportation on the basis of disability?
You may refuse to provide transportation to any passenger on the basis of safety…
You can determine that there is a disability-related safety basis for refusing to provide transportation to a passenger with a disability if you are able to demonstrate that the passenger poses a direct threat (see definition in § 382.3). In determining whether an individual poses a direct threat, you must make an individualized assessment, based on reasonable judgment that relies on current medical knowledge or on the best available objective evidence, to ascertain:
(i) The nature, duration, and severity of the risk;
(ii) The probability that the potential harm to the health and safety of others will actually occur; and
(iii) Whether reasonable modifications of policies, practices, or procedures will mitigate the risk.
§ 382.21 May carriers limit access to transportation on the basis that a passenger has a communicable disease or other medical condition?
You must not do any of the following things on the basis that a passenger has a communicable disease or infection, unless you determine that the passenger’s condition poses a direct threat.
This is a tricky situation in that Solari posed no direct threat and yet that understandably the airline did not take her word for it. After determining her condition was not contagious or infectious, it let her on the next flight and compensated her for her time.
Should it have held the flight? Could Southwest have handled it better? Sure, I think the teledoctor should have been willing to speak to the passengers and if current protocol prohibits that, it needs to change.
But to all the people who are rallying around Solari, were you the same people demanding paperwork showing that people were vaccinated for COVID-19? Were you the same people who thought that privacy was a human right, except when it came to that jab?
Solari is exploring a lawsuit against against Southwest:
“I asked the employee that had initially approached me, and they said the flight crew expressed concerns. The flight crew are not medical professionals. If anything, I want this to be a platform where I can make NF more widely known. People that suffer from visible medical conditions shouldn’t be afraid to travel.”
Indeed, there should be more awareness about NF and I hope this sad incident does promote awareness.
CONCLUSION
A California nurse was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight due to concerns over her skin condition. This is a difficult issue considering the appearance of the skin condition. While Southwest probably could have handled this more compassionately, I question whether a lawsuit is appropriate.
image: KCRA 3
She ought to have brought medical documentation with her , as she likely knew it could be misconstrued .
However , if the airline refused to consider her medical documentation , does she then have a case ? Perhaps the airline can refuse to board anyone for any reason ? Such as photographing something ?
WN reacted in a natural way and, based on the story, it appears that they tried to have some consideration. That said, no airline is going to have specialized personnel (like an airline doctor) on hand at any given station to deal with something like this. The lady was inconvenienced and embarrased and I don’t blame her. But if you look at both sides, WN did what they had to do and they tried to make amends once things were sorted out.
Yes, she’s angry and lashing out which is natural – but I think the tantrum is not quite fair.
The Tantrum is entirely fair after 2020 and the reaction that forced many of us to stop flying due to discrimination. I hope she get a massive settlement out of this.
I doubt she will get any settlement , because in the end she was not harmed , but only inconvenienced .
They may still get fined under ACAA. That’s the problem with the ACAA, from what I recall, is it doesn’t specify if you are allowed to sue or whether the punishment is only delegated to the State. (big S, not little) I recall that being why we were having issues with suits in 2020. Among other things. Justice isn’t a real thing in 2024. If it ever actually was.
No, it really isn’t. From looking at her, she appears to have the chicken pox or measles. It’s incumbent on the airlines not to allow a potentially (very) contagious passenger on the flight. They had to be sure.
Again, I get why the nurse was frustrated and pissed off…..but she lacks objectivity here and should get nothing for her trouble.
She provided documentation that it wasn’t chicken pox. The airline refused to listen. The airline was the one being unreasonable. All they had to do was take her documentation and move on, but instead because she “looks” scary, they chose to be jerks. It is ON the airline to prove she is a direct threat. They made her jump through hoops even after she already proved she wasn’t. I hope, for her sake and the sake of all others that have dealt with this stupidity, that she is given the opportunity to make them pay dearly to hammer home the point they don’t get to make peoples lives miserable because they are “scared”.
@ Angry flier. The photo looks nothing like chicken pox or measles. My vaccinated son contracted chicken pox from a child whose family refused to vaccinate and sent the kid to school. From the first hour of the early blotches, through the painful gooey sores to the lingering crust. The pattern far different. And I have had measles.
Then it’s not a vaccine. Seems like in this case the “anti-vaxxers” were correct. If it’s not sterilizing vaccine, it’s not a vaccine at all.
@ Brandon. Not sure what you’re trying to say. MMRV has been around for many years and successful. Any vaccine can have a breakthrough (as with my son) when the an immune system is weakened.
Airlines contract with a medical provider who is qualified to make go/no-go decisions over the phone. Most commonly, this is done through MedAire’s MedLink product, though there are others. It was inappropriate for the gate agents to refuse to make this call. The airline knows this, hence the significant compensation after the fact.
They made the call – but the medical provider refused to speak to the passenger. That may be protocol, but that is bad protocol.
This is what happens when you let the ACAA get misconstrued like it was in 2020. Not only did people like me suffer, but so is this person. Make them pay. Make them NEVER do this again.
So now ” the flight crew ” are also contagious disease detectives? ( and if someone thought NF looked like chicken pox they obviously are mistaken. )
I feel badly for the nurse and do hope every news report raises awareness for NF so people can be less paranoid. Maybe Southwest should offer a donation for a public campaign. That might satisfy her ill feelings.
This was encouraged by the “Karens” during the pandemic with BS masking. This is what happens when you embolden stupid people to make decisions about discrimination based on things they don’t understand.
If she’s n̈ot going to use her voucher, give it to me.
” She was in the Los Angeles area for surgery to remove some of those tumors…”. Is she going to be on Dr. Pimple Popper?
This is the line for bold: You must not do any of the following things on the basis that a passenger has a communicable disease or infection, unless you determine that the passenger’s condition poses a direct threat. It is the burden of the airline to demonstrate through a reviewing due diligent “determination” that the passenger’s condition poses a direct threat. Not difficult to do in the Covid era. They’ll review whether they followed that due diligence IAW an acceptable policy. It seems like she was both willing to speak to medical personnel and to show medical paperwork proving her diagnosis. Who is to say they would have accepted a doctor’s note? What it takes for the airline to make a “determination” and for passengers to demonstrate should be clear and trained on by personnel in a decision-capable role.
This was entirely my argument during the COVID karen meltdown. IT was ON the airlines to prove I was a threat, not the other way around. They could do that with a rapid test, which they refused to do. It’s time to torch these companies bottom lines for negligence.
Looks like the “fake freckles” makeup now so popular with young women. I see it nearly every day and laugh. I guess those folks should also be denied boarding ’cause they sure look like they’ve got some weird skin disease to me.
I’m going to point out a big, glaring hole in Southwest’s defense. They demanded she be “cleared” by EMS. As a former EMS provider I can tell you they have ZERO expertise in this arena. No EMT is going to stick their neck out and say she’s good to go. If they did, their medical director would have a cow. I highly doubt this is correct procedure for Southwest. On top of it, their medical representative refused to speak to her. Instead, the crew (who have little medical training) accepted an email as “proof”. Southwest has soooo much exposure on this.
I would be uncomfortable if I found myself seated next to her.