By Cox Media Group National Content Desk
SAN JOSE, Calif. (
MyFoxBoston.com) — A California woman with cancer, her husband and two sons were booted from an Alaska Airlines flight shortly before take-off from Lihue, Hawaii, Monday because airline employees decided she needed a note from her doctor before she could fly.
Elizabeth Sedway, 51, of Granite Hill, Calif., said she has
multiple myeloma and would miss two scheduled chemo sessions as a result of the airline's decision.
“I am scheduled for chemo, at home, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of this, I will miss my chemotherapy, my children will miss school, and my husband will miss important meetings,” Sedway said on
her Facebook page.
“I am so heart-broken and disappointed. They won't allow me to fly, until I can get MY doctor, who is not here, to state, in writing, that I am ‘cleared to fly,'” she said.
Sedway said she first came to the airline's attention when she put on a a surgical mask to avoid airport germs. She was allowed to board but was then removed from the plane.
“We were at gate 8 ready to depart on Alaska Airlines for San Jose. An airline employee saw me seated in the handicap section of the boarding area. She asked me if I needed anything. The first time. I said no. The second time, O said, well I might need a bit of extra time to board, sometimes I feel weak. Because I said the word weak, the Alaska Airlines employee called a doctor, she claimed was associated with the airlines. After we board the plane. An Alaska representative boarded the plane, and told us I could not fly without a note from a doctor stating that I was cleared to fly. The video is of us being removed from the plane."
Sedway said she and her family scrambled to find a hotel room for the night and did, but the airline “refused to pay for anything.”
Sedway and her family were re-booked on a flight the next day.
Although Alaska Airlines did tell NBC Hawaii they were sorry for the family's inconvenience, Sedway said she wants a written apology acknowledging the embarrassment caused to her and her family.
