An American woman has said her Irish husband had an epileptic seizure after missing his flight at Dublin Airport over the weekend.
John Murray (57), originally from Leixlip, Co Kildare but now living in Burlington, Vermont, missed his Aer Lingus flight to Boston at 4.45pm on Saturday, despite turning up four hours before his flight was scheduled to depart.
He was caught up in security at Dublin Airport for several hours and missed his flight as he also had to clear US immigration.
By the time he reached the boarding gate the flight had closed and passengers like himself had their baggage removed from the hold of the plane.
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“I tried to talk him through it on the phone. He was in an extremely bad shape,” she said.
Ms Loring claimed that a member of security told him that they were going to remove him because of the way he was acting “but he was acting that way because of an epileptic seizure”.
Ms Loring said she was convinced that missing his flight and the stress of going through Dublin Airport had helped to bring on the seizure.
“That kind of stress will bring on a seizure … His seizure are generally well controlled unless he is in a very stressful situation. He kept asking people what he should do,” she said.
“It was a nightmare for him. He is really having a crisis because he had to wait for his bag and get it to the kerb. He needed medical help to recover.”
Mr Murray finally made another flight at 11.45pm on Sunday night. He went to bed after arriving into Boston in the early hours of Sunday night.
Ms Loring said the long queues at Dublin Airport were not just a matter of people missing holidays, but had health implications.
“Outside epilepsy, my husband is in good physical health, but it is not healthy when people are pushing and shoving and when they are standing for hours in the queue when they should not be standing.”
A spokesman for Dublin Airport said it does not comment on individual cases. However, he said all members of Dublin Airport police service are qualified first responders and emergency first responders. In addition, members of Dublin Airport fire and rescue service regularly undertake their training in conjunction with Dublin Fire Brigade.
