Spirit Airlines refused to hold flight for toddler with cancer

MIAMI — Running down the terminal at Fort LauderdaleHollywood International Airport, Delray Beach mom Talia Tallman knew she and her family were running a few minutes late for their Spirit Airlines flight to Los Angeles.

But this was one flight the family couldn’t miss.

Tallman, her husband, her mother and her three children — 2-year-old Eden, 3-year-old Escher and 8-year-old Eversmith — were flying crosscountry to make an important follow-up appointment with Escher’s doctors.

The 3-year-old was diagnosed with a very rare, soft tissue cancer, called spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma, in July. His parents noticed a lump on his neck that then grew to a 5.5-centimeter tumor. Due to the rarity of the disease, the family relocated to Los Angeles to seek treatment at UCLA Health, where Escher underwent three surgeries to remove the tumor.

They returned home to Delray Beach for a week earlier this month while Escher recovered from his third surgery and planned to make it back to Los Angeles Monday for his appointment Tuesday.

But on Monday, as they passed through security, they learned their gate had been changed to one much farther away at the airport, leaving the Tallmans scrambling to make their flight on time. With three children and luggage in tow, the Tallmans decided to send Talia Tallman’s mother, Adrienne Becker, ahead of them to their departure gate to alert Spirit that the family was coming.

“She was explaining, ‘Please wait. My family is just coming up from security, it’s just going to take them a little bit longer to get here,” Talia Tallman told the Miami Herald Wednesday. “She said, ‘Please wait for us because my grandson had an appointment the very next day with his surgeon.’”

But, citing its policy of only accepting passengers up to 15 minutes before take off, Spirit said it could only wait 30 seconds longer, Talia Tallman said. (Spirit refutes that claim.)

Then it shut the door to the gate, she said.

Five minutes later, she said, she and her family ran up to the gate, only to find the door closed. Her husband, Logan Tallman, began banging on the gate and pleading with Spirit to let his family board the flight. Escher’s pain medication was in the luggage on the plane and they’d be without it in case he experienced discomfort from the surgery.

But gate agents told the family there wasn’t anything they could do.

“They showed literally zero compassion,” Talia Tallman said. “That was really what was so upsetting to me is these people were being so heartless when they had the opportunity to make a big difference in our lives by letting us on the plane.”