Southwest Airlines is being sued by a widow over her trader husband's death
Tom Gannam/Reuters
Kelly Ilczyszyn has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Southwest Airlines that alleged flight crews treated husband Richard Ilczyszyn, 46, as if he were creating a disturbance instead of having a medical emergency.
Richard Ilczyszyn, the founder of Iitrader.com, collapsed into a hysterical fit of crying and moaning about 10 minutes before his Sept. 16 flight was scheduled to land, according to the LA Times.
He was suffering from a pulmonary embolism that deprived oxygen to his brain for more than half an hour, according to doctors cited in the lawsuit filed in an Oakland-Alameda County civil court.
Flight crews made the snap decision that the ailing man had "barricaded himself in the bathroom," according to the lawsuit. The crew reported the incident to local authorities and had the plane evacuated at landing before tending to him, the suit claims.
Richard Ilczyszyn, who was also a frequent on-air contributor to CNBC, was found unconscious in the bathroom, taken to a local hospital and died the next day while on life support, according to the filing.
The documents do not specify the amount of damages sought by Kelly Ilczyszyn, a former Southwest flight attendant. She insists proper medical care would have saved her husband's life.
"I feel let down by my work family," she told the Times. "They dropped the ball."
Southwest issued the following statement to Bloomberg:
"According to our crew reports, it appears to have been an unfortunate medical event that we believe our flight attendants handled appropriately and professionally. Reports indicate that our crew attempted to reach the customer in an effort to provide assistance and our pilot arranged for first responders to meet the flight upon arrival in Orange County."
Business Insider reached out to Southwest for further information. This article will be updated if we hear back.
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