<![CDATA[A woman from Florida who was thrown out of her wheelchair because Southwest Airlines employees wouldn't push her is now paralyzed]]> https://usagag.com/2022/07/13/a-woman-from-florida-who-was-thrown-out-of-her-wheelchair-because-southwest-airlines-employees-wouldnt-push-her-is-now-paralyzed/ Wed, 13 Jul 2022 04:12:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://usagag.com A woman from Florida who was thrown out of her wheelchair because Southwest Airlines employees wouldn't push her is now paralyzed The Broward County lawsuit says that Gaby Assouline, who is 24 years old and has a disease that affects her muscles, was going from South Florida to Denver in February when she asked someone to push her wheelchair down the hallway.

The lawsuit says that a Southwest supervisor at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport turned down her request and made her use the jet bridge on her own.
Gaby Assouline
Gaby Assouline, who requires a wheelchair to get around, claims she suffered catastrophic injuries after falling when Southwest Airlines staffers refused to push her down a jet bridge.
GoFundMe
The suit says that Assouline was then "thrown" out of the wheelchair and hit her head. She is now paralyzed from the neck down.

Sandra Assouline set up a heartbreaking GoFundMe page for Assouline, saying that she broke her vertebrae in the accident and now has to use a feeding tube.

“She can’t speak because she has a tube down her throat, and she has no movement below her neck,” the mom wrote on the page. “The fear and pain she is showing in her eyes when she wakes up in those brief moments of clarity is too much to bear.”

Assouline said her daughter suffers from a disorder that turns muscle tissue into bone, limiting her mobility when the condition flares.

Gaby Assouline
Gaby Assouline’s GoFundMe page claims she cracked her vertebrae in the fall and now requires a feeding tube.
GoFundMe
Gaby Assouline
Gaby Assouline suffers from a disease that turns muscle tissue into bone.
GoFundMe
Gaby Assouline
Gaby Assouline’s mother, Sandra Assouline, says her daughter can no longer talk because of the feeding tube and can’t move below her neck.
sandra.m.assouline/facebook

The benefit drive has raised more than $112,000 in one week.

“Southwest Airlines’ primary priority is the safety of our people and customers both on the ground and in the air,” Southwest spokesman Chris Perry told the Dallas Morning News in a statement. “We have reviewed the customer’s initial account of her travel experience and have offered a response directly to those involved.”

The suit is demanding that Southwest pay for Assouline’s daunting medical care and compensate her for suffering.

“After the hospital, she will need to be moved to a live-in inpatient rehab facility where she will learn to live with her new reality,” her mother wrote. “Gaby will need occupational, speech, physical, psychological, and many other therapies in order to regain what she’s lost.”

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