Sickly, obese Bronx woman dies in Hungary after airlines say she's too fat to fly

[whopis01]

A sickly, obese Bronx woman was left stranded in Hungary then died from kidney failure after airline officials booted her from three New York-bound flights because she was too fat, her husband says.

“All we wanted was to come back home to get her treatment,” said a grieving Janos Soltesz, a Staten Island Ferry security guard whose 56-year-old wife, Vilma, died in Hungary nine days after she was kicked off the first of three jets.

Her illness, a combination of kidney disease and diabetes, caused her to gain water weight, and the airline said it didn’t have a seat-belt extender for her, Janos said.





http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/airlines_left_my_wife_to_die_nF3WDbQiw0EZLnvYr9XQmM

[annabanana]

1. I have never heard of a plane that "had no seat-belt extender"

For many years I required one and never even had to ask twice. For heavens sake, the attendants USE seat-belt extenders to demonstrate how the seat-belts work!

This doesn't make any sense.

[pnwmom]

2. She had bought 2 seats for herself and yet they claimed the seat couldn't handle her weight.

Each seat separately could have held a 250 pound man yet the two seats together couldn't hold a 425 pound woman?

[dipsydoodle]

9. She bought 3 seats for herself : not two

but the cabin crew were unable to lift her from the wheelchair to the seats.

[pnwmom]

10. And yet the article also said this:

"Janos said his wife was already seated when they were asked to leave."

So this is very confusing.

[sammytko]

13. That was the first time. That is when they couldn't find the extender and the seat was not going to

support her weight anyway.

In the other attempts they couldn't even get her inside the plane.

[pnwmom]

24. Why couldn't the two seats she bought together support her weight?

Each seat should be able to handle half of her 425 pounds.

Her husband had purchased a third seat, but she had two for herself.

And why couldn't they use one of the extenders that the flight attendants use to demonstrate how seat belts work?

[sammytko]

27. after looking at her pic in post 22, I think they didn't want to take the chance of an inflight

death. She looks terrible.

[pnwmom]

32. Then they just should have been honest and told the husband that.

Not pretended that they didn't have a seat extender or that two seats couldn't hold 400 pounds.

[dipsydoodle]

18. More in the Mail link

Too FAT to fly: Sick American woman dies in Hungary after 'airline kicks her off three New York flights because she was too obese'

Although a local fire department were brought in to help move Mrs Soltesz into three seats assigned to her, they could not lift her out of the wheelchair.

After half an hour of trying to move her, the captain asked them to leave the plane.

'We had 140 passengers on board, and they had connections and needed to travel,' said Lufthansa spokesman Nils Haupt.

'The question was never the seat belt. The question was the mobility of the passenger.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238590/Sick-US-woman-died-Hungary-airline-booted-New-York-flights-fat-fly.html#ixzz2DMnnQofO

I think the reference to her being seated may refer to the seat reservations as opposed to her physically sitting in them.

[quakerboy]

56. If the fire department

couldn't move her, they need to be fired and replaced.

[Drale]

3. She's overweight but

I was expecting one of those people who can't walk because of their own weight. They should have just asked her to pay for another seat, that's what my uncle had to do when we went to Disney quite a few years ago, before he lost about 350 pounds.

[yardwork]

17. She only has one leg, so it sounds like she can't walk and needs a wheelchair.

I don't think that her weight was the primary factor. The airlines couldn't accommodate her because she was too frail, it sounds like. Also, I find it very odd that her husband didn't seek medical care for her in Hungary or elsewhere in Europe. They could have traveled on a train anywhere in Europe and obtained excellent medical care.

The whole story seems fishy to me.

[Mass]

4. I have a hard time believing this story.

The simple fact that they did not go to an Hungarian hospital to get treated if she was that sick does not make much sense.

If she was treated for kidney failure, she probably needed dialysis in the first place, so how did she get it if she did not go to an Hungarian hospital.

[JaneyVee]

5. I hear the lawyers circling.

[uppityperson]

6. After reading the article, how sad for all involved. And I don't understand why

they couldn't fit her in some plane. She flew there, why not fly her back?

[sammytko]

8. It said she gained a lot of water weight.

probably from lack of treatment. They didn't go to a doctor while there.

[dipsydoodle]

11. None of the articles on this subject

explain how she got there. It doesn't follow she got there using the same carrier aside from which her weight had increased. while she was there.

As mentioned elsewhere the lack of medical treatment meanwhile appears to have contributed to / may even have been responsible for her death.

[sammytko]

14. She might have even been to weak to be able to even help herself onto the plane

Could have been 450 some pounds of dead weight.

[GoCubsGo]

15. Actually, they do.

The third paragraph of the article in the OP's link said the couple flew there on Delta and KLM airlines.

[dipsydoodle]

20. Not quite

because the second attempt was on a Lufthansa flight. On what was the first attempt the type of plane with which they flew there may have differed.

[sammytko]

7. according to the article, they didn't even try to go to a doctor in Hungary

So they again went back to the vacation home to make other arrangements as Vilma became sicker and sicker.

Neither trusted the doctors in Hungary, especially because they wouldn’t be familiar with her lengthy medical history, Janos said.


And it also stated that the problem was that they couldn't even get her on the plane. She probably needed a medical flight.

Why go if you are that ill? Did her american doctors ok the trip?

[GoCubsGo]

12. How did she get over there in the first place?

She was there less than a month. I find it difficult to believe that she gained so much weight in that period of time, she wouldn't fit on the type of plane on which she flew over there a few weeks earlier. They flew her over, but they refused to fly her back? I don't buy it. The fact that this story was an "exclusive" of Rupert Murdoch's New York Pest also speaks volumes. Something stinks here.

[Turbineguy]

19. Hungary?

Hey! Ain't that one-o'-them socialist places?

[dipsydoodle]

31. Its more less the same as the UK's NHS

Tax funded and there for its own population and reciprocal agreements with other EU countires.

[Turbineguy]

37. It was a reference to

those stupid "vote for republicans" ads from Thomas Peterffy.

[dipsydoodle]

38. Such things

are a bit lost on me being UK but I did notice the sarcasm.

[TwilightGardener]

16. She needed dialysis, sounds like. Wonder why no treatment

in Hungary if it's clear you can't fly home when you are that ill?

[dipsydoodle]

21. I'd be amazed if it wasn't available there

but the fact is no medical assistance was requested.

[TwilightGardener]

25. I'm pretty sure they could have treated her--wonder why she

went to Hungary for two months in the first place, with the expectation that she wouldn't receive any medical intervention while she was there? It's not like she "unexpectedly" fell ill over there if she'd already been diagnosed with renal disease and DM in New York before she left.

[dipsydoodle]

29. I think the couple are Hungarian

[TwilightGardener]

30. Right--I figured that too. Just wondering why you would

undertake a trip far away from your usual medical services, for six or eight weeks, knowing you had chronic diseases that need treatment or monitoring--and go to a place (homeland?) where you feel you cannot seek medical help? Strange.

[dipsydoodle]

34. I meant by family origin

not current nationality.

[bluemarkers]

54. me too

She was very ill to begin with.

Tragic situation no matter what

[FarCenter]

22. Having only one leg might have added to the difficulty of boarding her.

Vilma, who weighed about 425 pounds, had only one leg and used a wheelchair. She traveled with her husband of 33 years to Hungary on Delta and KLM airlines on Sept. 17.

Clearly should have sought treatment in Hungary.



http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/conditions/vilma-soltesz-425-pounds-dies-after-being-kicked-3-airplanes-her-weight

[sammytko]

23. maybe that was hubby's plan all along? very suspicious

[11 Bravo]

33. I fucking love it! No evidence. No nothing! But after 33 years of marriage, you're "suspicious" ...

that her husband is complicit in her death; and you have no problem with leveling such an accusation.

FUCK! Sometimes this place makes me want to puke.

[TwilightGardener]

35. There is something a bit suspicious of a man who refuses

to procure medical treatment for a seriously ill wife. Who flies to another country for two months with the expectation that under no circumstances will they seek medical help? She may not have even been fully alert and oriented (enough to make sound medical decisions), if she was in desperate need of insulin, dialysis, etc.

[Drahthaardogs]

44. Give me a break.

He could have smothered her in her sleep and no one would ask for an autopsy in her condition. Sometimes the misandry on this site is staggering.

[TwilightGardener]

46. How is it misandry to wonder what the hell this guy was

thinking? Had the genders been reversed, the questions would be no different--why did no one seek or insist on medical care for this very sick person?

[sammytko]

36. Get a grip dude - its just a forum where speculation runs rampant.

[laundry_queen]

40. no kidding. nt

[11 Bravo]

41. Thanks, Dude! I've only been here for 10 years. I appreciate you taking the time to explain ...

to me how this place works!

[sammytko]

45. always happy to oblige- dude! lol

[frylock]

47. he loved her so much that he wouldn't take her to the doctor in hungary..

save the indignation and ask yourself why the husband wouldn't seek medical treatment in Hungary.

[FarCenter]

57. The only way someone gets that fat is if someone else gets the food and prepares it for them

My money is on the husband as the enabler.

I personally knew of an obese agoraphobic woman. There was no way she could have maintained that weight unless her husband brought the food home.

[sammytko]

60. Not necessarily from food. If she wasn't going to dialysis, fluids would have built up

Its horrible. My stick thin neighbor would have legs like tree trunks the day before he would go to dialysis. He died from kidney failure.

[crazyjoe]

43. she should of never left the united states if she was that sick.

she could of got treatment there, in Hungary. She died because her husband was negligent.

[Fla Dem]

61. OK, that was my first thought. Who in their right mind goes to a foreign country for 2 months

when you are critically ill, morbidly obese, need constant medical attention, and have difficulty getting around. Some bad decisions all the way around in this situation.

[crazyjoe]

66. I totally agree, I don't believe the airlines has any culpability here.

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. sad

[Separation]

28. What about the embassy?

Did they try to contact the embassy to try and get a med flight, or arrange to have their med files sent over? This is very strange.

[frylock]

49. health records are electronic these days..

they could have had access to them in a very short period.

[mn9driver]

39. They certainly had a seat belt extender.

It was probably not big enough. This poor woman was in kidney failure and was indeed much larger, heavier and weaker than when she flew there. It appears that the airlines tried to accommodate her even to the point of having a crew of firefighters try to get her to her seat on the last flight attempt, without success.

Hungary's health care system still lags the European average, but not by nearly as much as it did in 2000 when the WHO last ranked them. Infant mortality is way down and life expectancy has increased by nearly 10 percent, putting those measures nearly equal to the US. This poor woman and her husband should have gone to a Hungarian hospital to get her stabilized and perhaps in good enough condition to travel back to the States. How sad.

[stevenleser]

42. An all around tragedy, but I'll say this, no family member of mine that sick would fly without an

argument from me, an "all out trying to convince them" argument not to travel.

I used to travel a lot for work and the few times I traveled sick or hurting it was bad, and I was not in the condition this poor woman was in.

A transatlantic flight in that kind of health is a really, really bad idea.

[crim son]

48. They tried for an hour to get her out of her wheelchair but couldn't.

This is a very sad situation, but I don't believe the airlines were liable. She should have been in a hospital, not taking a flight.

[MiniMe]

50. How did she get over to Hungary in the first place if it was such a problem?

[stevenleser]

53. Yes, I do not understand this. Why was someone in that condition making a long transatlantic flight?

That is really a mystery to me.

[MiniMe]

55. It just seems like if they could handle things when she flew over

They should be able to handle things when she flew back.

[stevenleser]

58. Thats just it. It seems to me they barely could deal with the flight over, then she got worse.

She had one leg amputated, I am guessing for diabetes, and she had kidney issues, plus the beyond morbid obesity and she gets on a 10+ hour flight from the US to Hungary away from her medical support system. That just is a bad idea. I have a lot of sympathy and empathy for them, but what happened was not at all surprising given the situation.

I know people who have health issues but are plenty less sick than that who decided wisely that a long trip to another country wasn't a good idea in their present condition. If you have traveled to Europe (from the US) with a worse than average cold, or badly herniated disc (yes for me to both), it's obvious that traveling while sick or injured is a bad idea that at best has you in for a lot of extra discomfort.

[FrodosPet]

51. We are a sad, sick species

Looking at the comments on the NY Post page (and even some here) - there are WAY too many hard hearted people on this rock.

And they will be the one's crying the loudest "Help me" when illness or tragedy strike.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

52. "Janos found Vilma dead two days later and buried her in Hungary."

Yeah, something is very "off" about this whole story. I'd be curious to know what sort of treatment she was receiving in the U.S. for her kidney disease. Incenter hemodialyis can be 15/hrs per week... one doesn't just flit off to a vacation home in Hungary for 3 weeks with no treatment planned. Especially with the weight issue, the diabetes, and the amputation.

RIP, Mrs. Soltesz.

[justice1]

59. I've had to deal with this situation before.

The passenger's daughter removed him from the nursing home, for a flight on a 50-seat aircraft. We tried for about an hour to get him on the plane. It was awful,he was disoriented, and cried out in pain when we touched him. We eventually re-booked him for first class the next morning.

[LisaL]

62. Sounds like it was dangerous for a woman in her poor medical health to travel into another

country to begin with.

[Nye Bevan]

63. If my wife was dying in Hungary, and we couldn't get home for some reason,

I would at least *try* a Hungarian hospital as opposed to letting her die. They might not be as good as US hospitals but I bet they're not *that* bad.

[stevenleser]

64. Many overseas medical facilities require several thousand $ be put on a credit card before treatment

commences. For something like this woman with all of her conditions, my guess is that if the husband didnt have $10,000 open to buy on his credit card(s), there was no treatment to be had.

[dembotoz]

65. years ago i was married to a woman with a terminal illness

and sometimes if she would want to do something i would just hold my breath and we would do it.

did we do something like fly to hungary?????

nothing that extreme
but if she had wanted to i am pretty damn sure i would have tried