American Airlines allowed an eldeꦿrly stroke victim to wander away and into traffic outside JFK Airport, her son charges in a lawsuit.
Marie Odette Oriental was slated to fly to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in March 2016 but as 🐬boarding for her flight began, multiple passengers told American Airlines employees that something was wrong with the 67🗹-year-old.
Oriental was “in an agitated, dist🌞resse💛d state,” her son, Emmanuel Augustin, said in his Brooklyn federal court suit filed against the airline.
American Airlines official💞s called Augus🐷tin twice in less than 10 minutes, reporting that his mom was “unstable.”
They asked the Maᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚryland man to come get his mom but failed to keep watch over her or get her help, Augustin alleged.
Oriental then “wandered away from the boarding-g🍎ate area, out of the terminal building, and into oncomin𓃲g traffic,” court papers say.
Augustin had traveled to Queens to get his Creole-speaking mom ready for her trip and drove her to the airporไt. Ov🌼er an hour later, as he was driving back to his Maryland home, a gate agent called.
By the time he arrived back at JFK, he found his mom sit🥃ting on a🍌 curb surrounded by cops, “shivering, confused and in obvious distress,” said his lawyer, Erin Applebaum.
Police and ♛medics had rescued her and “found h🌠er to be in the midst of a massive stroke,” Augustin claimed.
Since that day, Oriental “cannot s♛peak or wri♎te, is wheelchair bound, and has diminished mental capacity,” her son said.
“Ms. Oriental ✱was treated with a shocking lack of concern by Americaꦿn Airlines employees at a time when she needed them most,” Applebaum said in a statement.
“Rather than calling for immediate medical assistanc𝓀e . . . American’s gate a🐻gents inexplicably decided to contact Mr. Augustin for help. They then returned to business as usual, losing track of Ms. Oriental as she wandered away unassisted in the midst of a massive stroke.”
Augustin seeks unspecified damages. The🍸 airline declined to comment.