First off, I get it someone can bring any bug onto an airplane; however, I am curious at what level this kind of crap stops?

Two years ago, while I was in graduate school, I flew with my husband to attend a weeklong skill pass off in Boston (for school). On the return trip, I had a gate agent that never said anything to me but continued to berate my husband as to whether my trained service dog was a service dog. She badgered him from the podium onto the aircraft to the point where he said I’m kinda ready to punch her if she doesn’t stop talking about the dog that way. Of course, someone on the aircrew heard it and had a complete freak out which involved not only my husband being escorted off the plane but myself and the service dog also being escorted off the plane by the LAPD. After a week of traveling with a very amazing dog the way he was treated by this airline was complete garbage. I have no love or care for the airline industry anymore and that’s my personal bias because I’ve been on the end of mistreatment by the airlines. I won’t divulge the name, but I will tell you the airline is named after the forty-ninth state.

In all fairness when presented to the airline itself they were horrified that one of their gate agents would say something like that and continually repeated it as well as the rudeness of their flight crew including the first officer on that aircraft. Now you and I both know that there was never any disciplinary action taken against anyone. The gate agent was probably verbally reprimanded (and had to take some sensitivity class) and went on her way to do it to someone else because she’s ignorant. The first officer is the first officer, and he’s just trying to “protect his aircraft.” Of course, the airline ended up eating the cost of my flight etc. etc. but in the end, I didn’t get where I was going that day courtesy of some jackass making decisions on the training of my animal. I get it there a lot of people out there that put a vest on the dog and call it a service animal. If you do that just f*cking stop, I can’t tell you how many times my service dog to been attacked by your little foo foo dog that you must have with you, so you make up some line about him being whatever. He can stay home and be boarded, and he can stop attacking my animal. This didn’t happen in this case. However, it does happen with these fake service animals. Even if the dog is an emotional support animal (ESA) it still must pass the canine good Citizen test, or it’s supposed to; this test looks at the dog’s ability to behave in a public setting. Okay, end of the ten millionth rant by service dog handlers about fake service dogs. As for the airlines, I’m far from done with you.

So, enter this past week:

A mom says that she and her 1-year-old child were both asked to get off a recent American Airlines flight because of a skin condition they both have.

In a Facebook post on Thursday — which was also Rare Disease Day — Jordan Flake detailed her experience. In her post, Flake said that both she and her son Jackson live with ichthyosis, a genetic skin condition that can lead to dry, scale-like skin, per the Mayo Clinic.

According to her post, the fight crew became increasingly concerned about her skin condition.

“We boarded our American Airlines flight where everyone smiled and talked to Jackson,” she wrote. “Before take-off, a man (an employee called on [the] flight to handle the situation) came up to my row and asked the two men sitting next to me to get up. He then quietly asked me about ‘my rash’ and if I had a letter from a doctor stating it was OK for me to fly.”

So essentially without any diagnostic ability some bleach blonde sky Princess and a gate agent (See the trend here a position that requires an HS education and training how to enter a few numbers on a computer and wrap a tag around a bag… making complex decisions that she is grossly unqualified to make) and takes it upon herself to freak out about a skin condition. One flight attendant was just right downright rude in speaking about it while the passenger was deplaning. I get it we have opinions that we share at the nurses’ station as well. We also have the decency to have those conversations in the back of the nurses’ station where they’re not readily heard by the person who’s already dealing with a painful lifelong illness who’s just been publicly shamed by being asked to leave the airline. In an attempt to “soften” this they asked, “Do you have a doctor’s note to fly?” What you mean your diagnostician at the counter isn’t good enough?  I expect her vast training and probably, maybe 5 minutes on google were sufficient, right?  Do me a favor google ichthyosis and look at the images (they are scary).  The mother and child are in an article on the Insider here what we had someone so convinced that these people had the measles. I must tell you that measles had been eradicated in the United States for so long that many doctors these days must look up what the rash looks like because they’ve never seen it or diagnosed it. So naturally, an airline employee managed to diagnose some skin condition as contagious.

What is ichthyosis? (from The Foundation for Ichthyosis & Related Skin Types)

Ichthyosis is a family of genetic skin disorders characterized by dry, scaling skin that may be thickened or very thin. The prefix “ichthy” is taken from the Greek root for the word fish. Each year, more than 16,000 babies are born with some form of ichthyosis. A recent study has determined that approximately 300 babies are born each year with a moderate to severe form of ichthyosis.  Ichthyosis affects people of all ages, races, and gender. The disease usually presents at birth, or within the first year, and continues to affect the patient throughout their lifetime.

If you look at the Google pictures, of course, it is scary looking but incredibly benign. The airline’s response, of course, was, “oh we’re sorry will rebook you.” Of course, it wasn’t going to be that evening, and it was a huge inconvenience to the woman traveling. It is however way too easy for the airlines who overbooked their flights by at least 10% to find a standby to fly in that seat. So, in the end, it didn’t cost airlines a dime, and they probably made money from having one other flyer. When it came time to rebook American even shuffled them onto another airline. Of course, American played this off as a “convenience” to the passenger but let’s be real, American Airlines has a problem that it needs to fix.

Bottom line here is that airlines should not be in the business of diagnosing patients and should stick to flight safety.  A person with a skin disorder is not likely to be contagious and that is like grilling me about why I am disabled.  It is not fair to that person and they are obtaining and misusing PHI.

I’m also looking square at the anti-vaccine community in this country who has single-handedly caused a disease that was virtually eradicated ten years ago to resurface. The recent outbreaks of measles have caused lots of folks to be concerned because that’s something that shouldn’t be happening. The most recent excuse I heard was that there were so many shots at once.  Look Karen there is little chance they will remember them and they are over soon.  Just because you are concerned about things doesn’t mean they are all bad.  It always upsets me to think that people who are intelligent otherwise take their medical advice from a Playboy model and Deuce Bigelow American Gigolo. Also, the current president has been on record as saying he’s not for vaccinations and feels that they are not necessary. Eloquent as usual. Remember folks, science does trump beliefs no matter what you might think.

So, take the time and take your symptoms to your provider, let the provider make a diagnosis, and then research that diagnosis and ask intelligent questions. And if you are a flight attendant, I would much prefer you spend your time preparing the aircraft for flight and operating “In your own lane” here. You have a big enough job on board without trying to practice medicine.

Well, the bats have their friends in town, so the belfry indeed is bat country.