American Airlines Sued for Losing Passenger With Alzheimer's
Keraphline Dupuy (l.) trusted American Airlines staff to assist her father, Josaphat (r.), who suffers from Alzheimer’s, in getting onto his flight to Haiti from LaGuardia, but he never made it on board. (Photo: Aaron Showalter for New York Daily News)
Airlines lose lots of things — baggage, pets, occasionally a grandma. But now, American Airlines is being sued for losing a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease — a man who was missing for three full days in frigid New York temperatures. But according American, maybe he shouldn’t have been flying in the first place.
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In January, Keraphline Dupuy took her 52-year-old father, Josaphat Dupuy, who suffers from Alzheimer’s and dementia, to LaGuardia airport in Queens, N.Y., so he could catch a 6 a.m. flight to his native Haiti to be cared for by relatives. When she arrived at the airport with her dad at 4 a.m., Keraphline says she requested a wheelchair and told the attendant handling it that her father has Alzheimer’s and therefore could not be left alone, reports the Daily News.
“We put him in a wheelchair with the attendant,” Keraphline told the New York newspaper. “And that was the last time we saw my dad.”
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It wasn’t until several hours later Keraphline knew something was wrong. Josaphat’s flight had a layover in Miami, where other relatives were waiting to make sure he made his connection. But Josaphat never arrived.
Keraphline headed straight to the airport in Queens to figure out what had happened. She didn’t find answers — or Josaphat. According to the Daily News, an American Airlines rep simply told her that there was no record of any special assistance requested for her father. Keraphline told the paper that she had indeed made such a request, and that she last saw her father being wheeled away by a wheelchair attendant. According to the American Airlines website: “wheelchair assistance is provided at check-in through security and up to the boarding gate.” It is unclear why Keraphline did not request a pass from the airline to be able to accompany her ailing father to the gate, but it is clear that Josaphat didn’t get there.
After reviewing security footage, the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) discovered that Josaphat did not make it to security or to the gate, PAPD spokesman Joseph Pentangelo told Yahoo Travel. (Josaphat’s checked luggage, however, made it all the way to Miami.) The PAPD searched the terminals and areas surrounding the airport to no avail, said Pentangelo.
After staying at the airport for several hours, Keraphline was frantically worried about her father, who was alone in the middle of winter in New York City, with temperatures dropping into the teens.
“I was freaking out, I thought he died,” she told the Daily News. “His cell phone wasn’t working, nothing.”
Keraphline began her own search for her father but came up empty.
The next morning came the news that the police had found more of his luggage and his passport abandoned in Brooklyn. Inside the bag was also paperwork revealing that Josaphat had been treated for a back problem at New York University Langone Medical Center in Manhattan and released during the time he was missing.
Finally, a good Samaritan — 25 miles away from LaGuardia in Brooklyn — saw Josaphat wandering the streets, became worried, and found Keraphline’s contact information in Josaphat’s wallet.
Josaphat was taken to the hospital where he spent two weeks in intensive care, recovering from his ordeal. Doctors say he was lucky to be alive, according to the Daily News.
“I want American Airlines to take responsibility for what happened,” Keraphline told the Daily News.
American Airlines reportedly offered no apologies or explanation to the Dupuy family, according to the Daily News — it simply refunded the $304.60 for the unused plane ticket.
However, an American Airlines spokesperson told Yahoo Travel in an email “in the [American Airlines] conditions of carriage it is required that passengers are capable of comprehending/complying with safety instruction without the assistance of an attendant.”
The spokesperson also gave this statement: “We cannot comment on the specifics of this case since there is pending litigation, however we take these matters very seriously. It is important to note that American is committed to providing a safe, pleasant travel experience for all of our customers. To this end, our employees are trained to assist customers through every stage of their flying experience. We also encourage our customers to let us know how we can make their travels smoother by speaking with us at reservations, in the airport and during their flight.”
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