A mother has slammed Ryanair over the alleged treatment of her son who was born with a rare limb condition. Shelley Gorman claimed the budget airline refused to take her son’s wheelchair on board and made her 13-year-old son “feel like an inconvenience”.
Daire Gorman was meant to travel from Dublin to Liverpool to see his beloved Liverpool FC lift the Premier League trophy at Anfield last weekend. As he was born with a rare condition called Crommelin syndrome, which impacts the development of limbs, he has no arms or femur bones in his legs and uses a power wheelchair.
However, Shelley claimed the special assistance customer service asked “could he not go without” and “refused to take his chair” after she learned that it exceeded the maximum dimensions because it cannot be folded down.
In an interview with the Irish Times she said: “As a parent, you try and do your best for your children and especially children with additional needs and protect them from negativity – my child needs his wheelchair, imagine asking can he not go without it.”
She added the airline “completely took Daire’s independence away and made him feel like an inconvenience” and claimed Ryanair initially declined to offer a refund before relenting, which the airline refutes.
But in a statement, Ryanair said: “Regrettably, these emotive claims made by his mother are false. She fails anywhere in her complaint to accept that this wheelchair exceeded our well-publicised max dimensions.”
The family was able to source a manual wheelchair for the flight. However, Shelley claimed they boarded last and Daire had to be pushed the length of the plane, which she said resulted in him “losing his dignity (with) everyone watching him transfer onto the seat”.
A Ryanair spokesperson said the maximum dimensions information was “readily available to Ms Gorman when this booking was made and if she had simply complied with them then that would have been the end of the matter”.
The airline denied asking Daire’s mum whether he could travel without a wheelchair, and explained that wheelchair boardings are handled by the Dublin Airport Authority, not by airlines.
The statement said Shelley’s “claim that ‘Ryanair completely took Daire’s independence away’ is false and absurd”.
