Elizabeth Sedway, a woman with cancer, and her family got kicked off their flight by Alaska Airlines on Monday for not having a doctor's note.
The airline representative approached the 51-year-old Northern California native while she was in her seat on a return flight from Hawaii to San Jose. She felt embarrassed for the incident and even apologized to other passengers for the delay.
"I'm being removed like I'm a criminal or contagious because I have cancer," Sedway said in a video she posted on Facebook. "My family is being forcibly removed from an airplane because I have cancer, no note to fly."
The representative noticed her when she started wearing her surgical mask. She also admitted that she might need more time to board because she was still feeling weak, according to KTLA News.
"Because I said the word weak, the Alaska Airlines employee called a doctor she claimed was associated with the airlines," she wrote. "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."
Sedway emailed her doctor during the incident and was told that her condition shouldn't be an issue. However, the airline still removed her from the flight. The delay caused her to miss two scheduled chemotherapy sessions to treat her multiple myeloma.
Alaska Airline apologized for the incident and had refunded the plane tickets and paid for the family's overnight accommodations in Hawaii.
"Our employee had the customer's well-being in mind when we sought the advice of trained medical professionals," Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Halley Knigge told the Los Angeles Times.
Sedway plans to donate the refunded airfare to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. She also hopes to see changes.
"We need to make sure that ... corporations aren't so concerned with liability and bottom line that they overlook common sense and common decency," she said.
