According to a news story, a SE Asian airline misplaced the luggage of a teenager with cerebral palsy a few days ago. When the boy arrived with his family in Denmark, they discovered that his luggage was gone, and the worst was that his life-saving medication was gone too!
Thomas Mattinson’s family were still struggling yesterday to find his specific medication in Copenhagen when the story reached the news.
The family, from Australia, travelled to Denmark on the Singaporean airline for Thomas to take part in the World Games for frame running.
His mother told a local newspaper, “Tom has been race running for the last two years — something we never ever thought we would be able to do. It’s been a life-changing experience for him.”
But upon arrival in Denmark, Ms Mattinson said Singapore Airlines had lost all of their luggage — their suitcases containing his medication, his frame and his walker.
“We just had enough to get us by for five days and we’ve run out,” she said, according to the news report.
The mother also claimed that the airline damaged her child’s wheelchair by snapping the backrest and the brakes.
In her own words, “It was just a comedy of errors that you couldn’t ever imagine would ever happen.”
Thomas, now 13, was born premature at 29 weeks. His mother said he acquired a brain injury after being resuscitated for six minutes. He also has epilepsy and type one diabetes.
“We have nothing left and even after two very long days in hospitals trying to find the medication, we couldn’t actually get our hands on the things we need, even though they are designed and made here in Copenhagen,” Ms Mattinson said.
“We don’t even have enough to fly home!”
Today would be their last chance to find a hospital in Copenhagen that stocks the medication or can source it from somewhere. If not, Thomas will have to be admitted to hospital until a solution can be found.
She said the airline has promised them so many times that their luggage would turn up, but it has never arrived.
“We have had eight trips to the airport with absolutely no joy and really no-one can tell us where it is in the world,” Ms Mattinson said.
“It’s very stressful, it’s certainly not how we imagined it to be,” said the distraught mother.
Source: abc.net.au
