A family was left reeling after they were escorted off a plane to the sound of happy applause by other passengers when their young son suffered a severe allergic reaction.
Giovanni Alvarado, 7, and his mum Christina were on a bucket list trip with his terminally ill father Giovanni Alvarado when they were forced off a Allegiant plane in Washington State after Giovanni began to have a reaction to dogs that were on the flight.
“He began to get very itchy and he was scratching all over. He started to get hives, so we informed the flight attendant who informed us that there’s dogs on every flight and just smirked, which minimized his experience for me,” said Fabian.
The allergic reaction delayed the take-off of the flight scheduled from Bellingham back to the family’s home to Phoenix and after about 90 minutes, the family was told they’d have to exit the plane.
“We understood. They helped us off the plane, but as we gathered our stuff, the people toward the back of the plane clapped,” said Fabian.
A very embarrassed and uncomfortable Giovanni was crushed by the applause.
“People who don’t have sadness, they don’t understand,” he said.
What the passengers couldn’t have known was that the trip to Bellingham was a chance to visit family possibly for the very last time and Giovanni was upset his own medical aliment had affected his father’s experience.
“My dad is sick with stage four throat cancer,” said Giovanni. “To make memories, and I am sad that this has to be a memory with my dad,” said Giovanni.
Alvarado’s cancer is terminal and time’s running out.
“As a dad I was just hopeless right there. I just looked at the people clapping. I was just shaking my head, I was like man let’s get out of here,” said Alvarado.
Since the incident, the airline, Allegiant, apologised to the family for the experience they had, and said the decision to ask the family to leave the flight was out of their hands, maintaining it was the call of a third party doctor who said at that time it would ensure the “highest level of safety for that passenger” to keep him from flying, according to The Mail Online.
While the family were able to board the next available flight to Phoenix, Giovanni’s mother said the airline crew could have done more to calm other passengers.
“Instead of diffusing the situation, you added insult to injury and perpetuated the attitudes of other passengers,” said Christina.
But her cancer patient husband said the situation could be a good teaching moment on how to treat people.
“You don’t know how much time people have or why they are hurting,” said Alvarado. “Just be nice. Be kind.”
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