An elderly amputee had to crawl across his hotel room floor for his entire holiday after airline employees took away the lithium batteries for his scooter.
Stearn Hodge tragically lost his right leg and left arm due to a workplace incident in 1984.
He was able to maintain his autonomy with the help of an electric scooter.
Along with his wife Jan, Stearn was heading to Tusla, Oklahoma to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of his wedding.
Much to the couple’s surprise, the airport’s security had an issue with the lithium batteries used to operate his electric scooter.
An employee removed the operating and replacement batteries.
Stearn talked about his experience with CBC.
A security agent with CATSA and an employee for United Airlines both referred to their safety concerns when justifying the confiscation of the lithium batteries.
According to Stearn, the airline had already granted its approval for these devices.
Before the flight, the 68-year-old amputee had taken all the necessary precautions to ensure that the lithium batteries and his scooter would have no problems coming onboard.
He gained permits from United Airlines and CATSA specifically.
According to Stearn, the employees wouldn’t listen to him or take the time to read his permission slips.
Without the functionality of his scooter, Stearn was forced to spend the majority of the three-week vacation in the hotel bed.
When he had to use the restroom, Stearn had to crawl on the hotel room floor.
In his interview with CBC, Stearn reported that the airport officials had taken his “dignity” along with his only form of transportation.
He described the incident as “humiliating”.
Stearn couldn’t think of a more humiliating experience than crawling on the floor in plain view of his wife.
Stearn also included that he hasn’t felt the same since the awful incident.
An anniversary holiday that was supposed to be spent reconnecting with his wife was overshadowed by this situation.
When a CATSA security agent took away his scooter, Stearn was told to use a wheelchair.
Because of his work-related accident, Stearn only has one arm and a prosthetic leg.
A wheelchair is not functional for an individual with one arm.
To make matters worse, Stearn’s wife recently started receiving cancer treatments.
This left her rather weak and made it impossible for her to push Stearn in a wheelchair.
United Airlines has refused to speak on the case publicly.
However, Stearn has received an email from the airline that states: “It appears we were in violation of federal disability requirements.”
Other than a small voucher and an apology, United Airlines hasn’t offered Stearn anything in reparation for the awful and humiliating incident.
He is bringing a lawsuit against the company for violating the statutes regarding human rights in Canada.
