“I just started crying, cause it was just so humiliating. I just felt ashamed, like it’s my skin. I wear it,” says Jacqueline Nguyen. After showing airline officials her prescription skin cream, she was allowed to re-board.
A woman experiencing an eczema flareup says airline personnel temporarily pulled from a plane because they wrongly suspected she had monkeypox.
Jacqueline Nguyen and her wife boarded a Spirit Airlines flight in Los Angeles. Almost immediately, she says a flight attendant asked to speak with her.
“They just asked my wife and I to get off the plane and go to the jet bridge. And they were just like, ‘We want to know about that rash,’” Nguyen said.
But the rash wasn’t monkeypox. Nguyen has suffered from eczema, which causes dry and inflamed skin, for her whole life and was experiencing a flareup on the day of her flight.
“I just started crying, cause it was just so humiliating. I just felt ashamed, like it’s my skin. I wear it,” Nguyen said.
After the embarrassment of being marched off the plane, Nguyen says Spirit Airline officials asked her to provide proof of her eczema with medical documents from her doctor, which she didn’t have with her.
“We don’t carry around paperwork that’s like, ‘I have chronically dry skin,’” Nguyen said.
Dermatologist Dr. Michelle Henry says people with all types of skin issues are being wrongly targeted around the country amid the monkeypox outbreak.
“There are so many judgments around our skin. So a lot of my patients are very concerned. They’re taking the subway. They’re concerned that someone’s going to take a photo of them. They’re concerned they’re going to be barred from a restaurant,” Henry said.
Nguyen was allowed to re-board the plane after producing her prescription eczema skin cream.
“If you’re in a position of power, if you have the ability to take someone off of an airplane and stop them from seeing their families, you of all people should be educated,” Nguyen said.
Spirit Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
