I Never Saw Her Again
I was on a flight from New York City to Los Angeles with my father. We are seated on opposite sides of the aisle toward the back of the plane (I’m on the aisle seat on the right side and he is on the aisle seat on the left side). Everyone starts to take their seats.
Interestingly, I am left with an empty one next to me. Not for long. I see a woman, who I assumed was paralyzed, being wheeled in my direction. I politely stood up because I knew she was going to take the seat next to mine.
After the airline staff had transferred her from the wheelchair to the seat next to me, they went back to tending other passengers. About 10 minutes later we lifted off for our eight-hour flight.
Fast forward a few hours, and we are beginning to fly over Colorado when the lady next to me starts having a coughing fit. Now, this isn’t your normal “cough a few times a minute” thing, this is the hard cough of someone who is in pain.
As I sit there uncomfortable, she begins to moan about how much pain she is in. It’s then when I notice all of the color has drained from her face and her eyes are barely open. THEN SHE GETS UP AND WALKS TO THE BATHROOM.
So is she paralyzed? I thought to myself. I got up and let her in after she returned. That’s when the loud pain filled groans began. She started screaming “I need to lay down! I need to lay down right now!”
So the flight attendants took this woman to the back of the plane (only a few rows behind our seats) and help her over the counter. This was the best they could provide her, yet I could still hear her groans from my seat.
My dad told me that I should expect to have an emergency landing in Denver so this woman could be given medical attention. That landing never came. When we finally reached LAX the plane was taken to the side and stopped for a good 20 minutes before anything happened.
That’s when the men in gas masks and suits that had the logo for the Department of Health walked toward her. I was very off-put at this point but it gets worse.
Two men with briefcases walk behind them (also in masks) and I began vigorously shaking my dad’s arm. “Did you see what it said on the briefcase?! Did you see?!” He said no. It said “CDC Emergency response team.” Five minutes later they carried her out and the captain said that we were free to go.
My dad was not okay leaving without an explanation so he asked the captain when we got to the front of the plane what happened. The captain said that she had just flown in from Africa and the CDC had to make sure she didn’t have a fever.
That was it. I knew then I was done for. Miraculously nothing happened, but it was so scary. I never knew what became of that woman. Story credit: Reddit / (buymeapickle)