A Saskatoon family’s dream vacation to Mexico turned into a nightmare when they fell ill with suspected severe food poisoning, forcing them off their WestJet flight home.
Brette Cowen and Andrew Hoffman were on vacation in Cancun with their child Lennox when the family of three suddenly became violently ill. Despite being one of the first families to board the plane, they couldn’t function and were eventually removed by airline staff.
“I don’t think we realized how sick we were until we actually boarded the plane,” Cowen said, recalling the terrifying experience. “We were just throwing up in anything that we had… They finally said, ‘You’re too sick, you can’t fly.'”
The family claims they were told by their travel company, Sunwing Vacations, to see a doctor later at the hotel they stayed at, which would have taken over an hour to reach. However, with Lennox’s condition worsening, Cowen and Hoffman knew they couldn’t wait.
“They eventually said, ‘You’re going to go back to your hotel and see the doctor at the hotel,'” Cowen said. “We already checked out, we were going home… We kept saying, ‘No, no, we need help now.'”
The family ultimately got treatment at the hospital themselves and was able to secure a flight home two days later.
Air passenger rights expert Gabor Lukacs says while WestJet did the right thing by removing the passengers due to their illness, they may have erred in not doing enough to ensure the sick passengers received care.
“The story that we should have had is… airline employees get out of their way to get them to hospital,” Lukacs said. “It would have been a much nicer, better PR.”
Sunwing Vacations has released a statement expressing regret for the family’s ordeal and confirming they helped at the airport and were in contact with the travel agent.
The family is now investigating what action can be taken against Sunwing for their handling of the situation and working with their insurance providers to cover some of the debts incurred during their extended stay in Mexico.
Source: Global News
