A decorated Paralympian who won multiple Gold and Silver medals in track and field at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games is suing American Airlines for negligence after he had to undergo numerous surgeries following a ‘humiliating’ incident onboard one of the carrier’s planes at Phoenix Sky Harbor.
Doug Heir was seriously paralyzed when he was just 18 years old after he dived into a swimming pool to save the life of a young boy who was drowning. Doug struck his head on the bottom of the pool and was later diagnosed as quadriplegic.
The accident turned Doug’s life upside down, but he managed to fight back from depression to become one of the “most decorated Paralympians in history,” representing the United States at several Paralympic Games and serving as the President of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association.
Unsurprisingly, Doug has become an inspiration to many paralyzed young people and has appeared in several documentaries chronicling his life story.
In late October 2022, Doug traveled from his home in New Jersey to Phoenix for the wedding of a friend who had produced a documentary about Doug’s life. Doug used American Airlines for his travels, and while the flight to Phoenix went off without a hitch, the return flight left him facing multiple surgeries for injuries he sustained.
Doug had told American Airlines about his disability and the fact that he would require assistance to board the aircraft that would take him first to Philadelphia.
Specifically, Doug told the wheelchair assistance personnel assigned to help him that while he would attempt to lift himself from his powered chair into the aisle chair, he would require them to spot and assist him if required.
As Doug started to move from his own chair to the aisle chair, he lost his balance and repeatedly called out for the assistance personnel to help him. Despite exclaiming, “Grab me!” several times, the assistance personnel looked on and didn’t attempt to hold onto him.
Doug fell to the floor hard, causing him cut his buttock and defecate himself. Doug lay on the floor of the jetty for nearly half an hour as the assistance personnel refused to pick him up, and, in the end, the emergency services had to be called to help him onto the plane.
Eventually, other passengers were allowed to board, passing Doug who was sat in First Class and who had just defecated into his clothing – an experience that he describes as “embarrassing and humiliating.”
Doug was forced to endure the four hour flight to Philadelphia with an open wound on his buttock and covered in his own waste.
Much of 2023 was spent trying to treat the wound, and problems persisted into 2024. In September, Doug was forced to undergo skin flap surgery in an attempt to treat the wound. Doug remains on bed rest, recovering from the latest surgery.
In his recently filed lawsuit against American Airlines, Doug accuses the carrier of negligence and gross negligence and is calling on a jury to award him punitive damages.
In response to the suit, American Airlines has denied the allegations.
American Airlines was slapped with a record $50 million fine for its mistreatment of passengers with disabilities and for mishandling wheelchairs. In October, the Department of Transportation accused the carrier of “numerous serious violations of the laws protecting airline passengers with disabilities.”
The record-breaking fine is 25 times larger than the DOT’s previous biggest penalty served on an airline for violations of disability rights laws, although American Airlines only has to pay half of the fine.
The decision to make American Airlines pay just 50% of the penalty comes on the back of investments that the carrier has already made to improve the service it provides to disabled passengers.
In 2024 alone, American Airlines says that it has already invested $175 million to improve its services for disabled passengers, and claims complaints arising from wheelchair mishandling have dropped significantly.
Their improvements for the disabled are lies. My mother has had multiple TIA’s and a stroke and while ambulatory for short distances, requires a wheel chair. Her last 3 flights on American they did not provide a wheel chair nor an attendant to help her board nor exit the aircraft, despite having confirmed with the airline that they would assist her. We have called and verbalized our complaints each time with American apologizing and saying that their was a miscommunication or a service problem. She never has this problem when she flies Delta. American just sucks, they don’t care about their passengers and it shows.