Woman thrown from wheelchair when Southwest Airlines staff refused to push her is now paralysed, lawsuit claims

A low cost airline is facing legal action after a woman was left essentially paralysed when the carrier’s staff allegedly refused to help her.

A disabled American woman has claimed staff from a budget airline refused to aid her in going down a jet bridge in a wheelchair — and that she suffered catastrophic injuries after falling over while trying to do it herself, court papers state.

The lawsuit asserts that Gaby Assouline, 24, who suffers from a muscle disease, was travelling from Florida to Denver in February when she asked for someone from major carrier Southwest Airlines to push her wheelchair down the corridor, the New York Post reported.

US low cost carrier Southwest Airlines is embroiled in legal action. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP)

The suit contends that a Southwest supervisor at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, near Miami, declined her request and that she was forced to negotiate the jet bridge on her own.

Ms Assouline was then “thrown” from the wheelchair before landing on her head — and is now paralysed from the neck down, the suit stated.

A heartbreaking GoFundMe page set up for Ms Assouline by her mother, Sandra Assouline, said that she cracked her vertebrae in the spill and is now forced to use a feeding tube.

Gaby Assouline prior to the incident. Picture: GoFundMe

“She can’t speak because she has a tube down her throat, and she has no movement below her neck,” the mum wrote on the page.

“The fear and pain she is showing in her eyes when she wakes up in those brief moments of clarity is too much to bear.”

Ms Assouline said her daughter suffers from a disorder that turns muscle tissue into bone, limiting her mobility when the condition flares.

The benefit drive has raised more than $US112,000 ($A165,000) in one week.

Gaby Assouline’s mother said she had no movement beneath her neck. Picture: GoFundMe

“Southwest Airlines’ primary priority is the safety of our people and customers both on the ground and in the air,” a Southwest spokesman told the Dallas Morning News in a statement. “We have reviewed the customer’s initial account of her travel experience and have offered a response directly to those involved.”

The lawsuit is demanding that Southwest pay for Ms Assouline’s daunting medical care and compensate her for suffering.

“After the hospital, she will need to be moved to a live-in inpatient rehab facility where she will learn to live with her new reality,” her mother wrote.

“Gaby will need occupational, speech, physical, psychological, and many other therapies in order to regain what she’s lost.”

This story appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.