The budget airline Ryanair refused to fly a child from the Canary Islands to Madrid in Spain for an emergency double transplant. The airline said the family had arrived too close to the take off time of the plane.
On Saturday, March 14, the family was advised by the transplant services of Hospital La Paz that a donor had been found for their son and he was to be rushed from Gran Canaria to Madrid for an emergency liver and kidney transplant.
On arrival at the airport, the family bought tickets for the next flight to Madrid, which was Ryanair flight RYR2012. However, a Ryanair official refused to allow the child to board, as the family had failed to acquire the tickets far enough in advance of the flight.
According to the Spanish language airline industry news website, Aviación Digital , the unnamed child had to then take a later flight to Madrid with Air Europa.
Organ transplant child barred from Ryanair flight from Gran Canaria to Madrid for arriving late http://t.co/Enl5bo0NOv
— Victoria Medina (@victoria9medina) March 18, 2015
The Local reported that a Ryanair spokeswoman had said they had looked into the matter with their handling agent at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. She said “unfortunately, we were unable to accommodate this family onto our flight as it was too close to the departure time. We will be happy to assist them with their flight requirements.”
As the donated organs were waiting for the child in Madrid, and as Ryanair refused to fly the child, waiting for the airline’s next flight was out of the question and the family ended up on flight AEA9165 with Air Europa, leaving one and a half hours after the Ryanair flight.
Ryanair left a young boy at Gran Canaria airport who was going to Madrid for a double transplant – http://t.co/iJPMTS2DO7 via @typspan
— Typically Spanish (@typspan) March 17, 2015
On arrival at Madrid Barajas airport, the child was immediately rushed to Hospital La Paz.
The family suffered “hours of anguish,” as they were not sure if they would arrive in time for him to receive the donated organs after Ryanair refused to fly the child to Madrid. The transplant team themselves were in “extreme distress” because they feared the patient would not arrive in time and even said that they had started to consider finding a new receiver for the donated organs.
Ryanair is often reported in the news for controversial incidents, including one noted by the Inquisitr in February, when a drunken, half-naked passenger caused havoc on a flight and it had to be diverted.
[Image: CC by-SA 2.5 Raboe001 ]