On April 25, 2011 at about 1630, I was tossed to the ceiling of the plane, twice, due to severe turbulence. I was the only person injured in this incident as most flight attendants are the victims.
I was just going about my normal routine: I finished the main cabin beverage service and started to eat a bit of food while emptying soda cans in the lavatory. Nothing out of the normal. The weather wasn't god that day however the pilots told us the route we were given should be ok...yeah, right. The turbulence came out of no where! It was smooth flying one minute and the next thing I know, I get lifted off of the ground...that feeling doesn't happen everyday. My head and shoulder were tossed harshly against the ceiling of the plane, right over the R2 exit. It hurt I guess but after I came back down I had no time to think or gather myself, I was immediately tossed to the ceiling again in the same manner. Ouchies!!! When I came back down, I was shaking. My head hurt like any other time you hit you head hard. I was mostly just standing there in shock of what just happened and that it happened to me like this.
Once I gathered myself, I sat in the jumpseat and that is when I thought about my passengers, especially the woman in the last row with a lap child (baby), the wife of a pilot who didn't seem to want to listen to me when I told her earlier that her baby could be pulled against her arms at ten times its weight in the right circumstance (like this godforsaken turbulence) and that the safest thing would be to keep the child in a seat, preferably a car seat approved for travel. You would think the wife of a pilot would know better. Luckily the baby didn't get hurt but the baby came loose long enough in the woman's arms to scare the shit out of her.
So, I look out at the passengers who are drenched in beverages and fear, and one in laughter (the very annoying lady in 20B who thought it was so funny. Bitch didn't know I got hurt. I wanted to slap some sense into her ass about how serious that shit was...argh!!!). I started to hand out paper towels to the last few rows and made an announcement asking if anyone needed assistance, please ring your flight attendant call button. The other flight attendant came to check on me and I told her what happened. She asked me if I was ok and started to help me get my galley together. I was a bit disoriented but of course, I don't tend to show people when I'm hurting, except my husband who sees through my bs. She left to go to the front of the plane.
The pilots finally decided to call. They explained what happened and ask if anyone got hurt. I told them what happened. The captain asked if I wanted an ambulance to meet me. Hell no! I don't want this big scene in the airport. What a dumb idea, Tracie! He recommended that we remain seated for the remainder of the flight. I just once wanted to make sure everyone was ok before I took my seat. I went out with a trash bag to collect anything like coffee so people wouldn't get hurt. There were two main line flight attendants (main line meaning they work for a major Airline directly like Delta or American Airlines and not regionals like Compass or American Eagle) seated who told me to get my ass back to my seat. They were seasoned and smart. The turbulence was so bad that I had to crawl my way back ot my galley...still be lifted off of the ground, I was holding on for dear life to the sides of the seats in the aisle. I sat down for the rest of the flight. My head was starting to hurt more. The turbulence continued. I just wanted to be on the ground. Some 40 minutes later we finally landed. It was 40 minutes of non-stop turbulence.
When we got to the gate I proceeded to unfasten my seatbelt. Whoa... I got dizzy, very dizzy. Shit, is this something serious? Well, the lady in 20C was still laughing. She looked me dead in the eyes seeing that I was very stern and asked me, didn't you think that was funny? I said no, it was very serious and I got tossed to the ceiling of the plane. The bitch finally stopped laughing. One of those mainline flight attendants came to use the restroom and asked me if I was hurt. I told her what happened and she had the biggest look of doom on her face. She said I was going to be on OJI (on the job injury) for a month. She said I was not going to work and that I could be injured badly. I thought, no way, can't be that serious. I mean, I felt bad but that bad...?
Today is June 15, 2011 and I have not worked since my injury. I have just stopped taking pain medication only because I had an allergic reaction and in my goal to get back to work I want to be independent of drugs. I am still in pain. Even as I sit here now. There was much drama that ensued after the injury. My crew, obviously seeing me disoriented, left me behind on my own without asking if I needed anything. I would have never left someone behind like that. It took a while for me to get in contact with inflight to get some help. It took almost 2 hours post incident to get to the hospital. From there it took about 5 hours for me to get seen by a doc who gave me pain meds and said take it easy and that my neck was going to hurt like hell in a few days (this motherfucker still hurts like a motherfucker).
Now I know I should have never left the hospital and demanded an MRI. Then again, all I wanted to do was get home. Now I am home. I have been taking physical therapy for about a month and I feel stronger. Hopefully I will get back to work soon. Why did this happened? Well, that's another blog for another day.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment