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Our oldest hasnt been on an airplane yet (hasnt been a reason too) but as a parent with a kid who has life threatening allergies it is up to us to call ahead and let them know of the situation and not bring it up just before you board the plane. That is irresponsible.
While this is very sad and the family must be hurting terribly, I can see no reason for them to blame the restaurant. First of all, we do not know what, if anything, the restaurant did wrong. Secondly, it was them who forgot to bring his medications with them. Third, there must be traces of dairy in so many products that eating in a restaurant is a danger.......can the restaurant know everything about every product they serve ?
My one Son is insulin dependent, and when we go out to eat he very carefully chooses his meals to get the correct amount of carbs and always stresses he wants DIET COKE. There have been times he tasted the Coke and said he thinks it is regular Coke and we immediately question the server to make sure. He always has his injection pen with him, as well as snacks and other emergency food.
You can't sue for everything in life that happens. This illness was well known to the family and they basically had a ticking bomb on their hands, sooner or later some trace of dairy was going to be ingested by him, so they needed to take every precaution and HAVE HIS MEDS on him at all times.
If I were on the jury I would have a hard time finding the restaurant guilty.
I'm sorry for the loss of their son, no one should loose a child.
There is no way to be totally safe when eating out & your have allergy's to certain foods. The best thing you can do is eat at home. No, it's not fair that one should only be able to eat at home all the time. And yes the family should of made sure that his meds are always with him. My wife is gluten free & sugar free so we understand how hard it is to stay that way when eating out. NO restaurant can say for sure that some surface hasn't touched something where it might make someone sick, even more someone with a food allergy.
That's nice they could do that. But they can't control everyone and they shouldn't be responsible in the event of a tragedy.
You're right, they can't control anyone, but I really appreciated the fact that they made the announcement and took a few steps to help.
Most people flying are responsible, reasonable adults and would likely understand that they can wait until deplaning before opening the bag of nuts. If someone wants to be an A-hole and disregard the risk to a child, well, they're probably an A-hole in life to begin with.
The airlines didn't do it because it was nice, they did it due to ADA regulations. lenniel was inconsiderate of others by not calling ahead to advise the airline of the situation.
As I've stated earlier, I was a passenger of one those type of flights. For this type of inconvenience when a person does not call in advance we (the other passengers) end up with vouchers. In my case I missed my connection flight in another city and there was no further flights to my city or to a city within driving distance (for the airline to drive me to the airport where my car was sitting) of this airport. There were over a dozen of us put up overnight in a crappy hotel until the next day.
Please connect the dots for me? How did not handing out peanuts and asking those who brought nut snacks onboard to avoid opening them delay your flight?
Even if they had handed out nuts, obviously we would have declined and I would have asked my seatmates if they could choose the pretzel instead. No big deal.
Our oldest hasnt been on an airplane yet (hasnt been a reason too) but as a parent with a kid who has life threatening allergies it is up to us to call ahead and let them know of the situation and not bring it up just before you board the plane. That is irresponsible.
Still not sure what the problem is with not serving nuts as the snack? How does this cause a problem? Are people treating their bag of nuts like their dinner and if they don't get it, they're going starve?
Nothing in life is without risk. You have to decide on much risk you and your family can accept and move on. You can't - and have any life at all - bury yourself in a cave and never come out.
Now I would note that this family took risks I wouldn't be willing to. For example - if we forgot the epipen, we wouldn't EVER consider eating at a restaurant . . .and if the little guy shows a anaphlaxis reaction we would immediately call 9/11
Last edited by Ibginnie; 03-18-2015 at 08:57 AM..
Reason: discuss the topic not other posters
And rather than make sure your daughter didn't eat nuts the entire planeload of people couldn't eat nuts?
You think that's "awesome" ?
Okay, apparently some here misses the point of Southwest and the role of businesses in these posts.
The restaurant in this post AND southwest are businesses. They have the right to decide what exceptions, rules, actions they take when they face customers with disabilities.
The restaurant, if what we read was true, told the person that there was no dairy. What we don't know is what the kid had a reaction to. Parents assumed pancakes. . . and if they want to sue they better have some of the pancakes left for testing. . .
yet the restaurant understood the request and noted they would do X, Y, and Z. At that point its the families decision on if they can proceed. if the restaurant only did Y and skipped X and Z. . I think there would be reason to go after them. yet without some of the pancakes in questions (that can be tested) i would think it would be VERY hard to prove that the restaurant was the one who made the kid sick.
Southwest on the other hand is flying a plane. A large plane with over 130 passengers. if one person has a reaction mid flight. . its an emergency landing WHEREVER they are. .delays. Refuel/etc.. .and meeting ambulance staff. Its really expensive to southwest if a person has a reaction. So southwest takes precautions (no serving peanuts, asks people to refrain). Risk is low of a problem - but they don't want to take any risk.
Personally I have a son with a peanut allergy. . and i'm not worried about peanuts floating around...in the air. . or someone eating peanut butter. That won't impact him. If he eats a peanut from the seat.. that will. So getting on early and making sure seat is clean for the 2.5 year old (flown multiple times) is most important. yet as a parent you MUST tell the gate agent that they are carrying a peanut allergy. . .
its a businesses decision. . .on how to accommodate/if they can accommodate those with these disabilities. How they do it is up to them. .
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