A dialysis patient feared for her life after Ryanair failed to load her life-saving machine onto her flight.
Samantha Mitchell, 39, from Stoke-on-Trent, who requires dialysis five times a week, was travelling from London Stansted to Reggio Calabria in southern Italy on July 26 when the error occurred.
Ms Mitchell, a special educational needs (SEN) teacher, had checked in her 43kg dialysis machine but was told by a Ryanair agent that the machine was "too heavy" to be taken on board.
But after producing a medical waiver, she claims a supervisor reassured her the medical equipment would be on the flight.
It was only when Samantha landed and turned on her phone that she discovered her machine had been left in London.
Samantha was in tears as Ryanair staff contacted Stansted Airport, fearing she could have a heart attack without the treatment, and was later told it would be sent the following day.
She was due to do dialysis that evening and began ringing around hospitals ahead of her machine arriving at 5pm the following day when she started feeling ill.
Samantha claimed she even stopped eating and drinking to prevent further toxins entering her bloodstream.
The airline flew the machine out and sent it via taxi to her accommodation by the end of the following day, but by this point Samantha claims she was unwell and "swelling up" from toxins.
Ryanair said the machine wasn't loaded due to "an error made by the check-in agent" but that as soon as the airline was alerted, the machine was "rushed" onto the next available flight.
This is the second time Samantha has had issues flying with her dialysis machine, after hitting headlines in 2018 for being denied boarding on a previous occasion due to the same weight issue.
Samantha said: "I've got kidney failure so my kidneys are non-existent.
"They don't work and I need dialysis five times a week.
"Without it I would be very swollen and it would have become hard to breathe.
"I would start being sick and the worst thing would be a heart attack as the toxins in my blood would be too much.
"I went to check-in my machine, [the agent] rang supervisors to make sure everything was okay and the documentation was okay.
"He said it was all fine and they'd take it through.
"As soon as I got through security, they were asking for me to go back and speak to a supervisor about how heavy my machine was.
"It was 43kg, the supervisor said it was too heavy to go in the cabin with me but I wanted it in the hold.
"She said [that] was fine and it would go in the plane.
"As soon as I landed, I had a phone call from my dad.
"He'd got an email to say they were refusing to put in the machine because it was too heavy.
"I was literally fearing for my life. I was crying because I was panicking, my machine was all the way in London."
Samantha added: "I've travelled with it [the machine] many times.
"I don't think they realised how serious it was that they had done this, it was full on panic and anxiety [mode].
"I had to stop drinking and eating because I didn't want any more toxins in my body.
"I had started to swell up because I didn't pass urine and felt a bit sickly.
"It's been a very traumatic experience, a horrible start to the holiday.
"I am scared of the way back, it makes me not want to travel again in my life."
Samantha's mum, Elaine Mitchell, said it was a "life and death" situation and that it was traumatic for the whole family.
Elaine said: "This is not a case of clothes gone missing, this is a life-saving machine. It was traumatic for all of us.
"We immediately rang the baggage team [...]and they told us it's a matter of health and safety.
"We were saying 'she's got a waiver, it's not a health and safety issue, it's a life and death issue.'
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"If Sam doesn't have dialysis, she will be ill or worse. All [they] kept saying was that it was too heavy."
A spokesman for Ryanair said: "Due to an error made by the check-in agent at Stansted Airport, this passenger's medical device was not loaded on this flight from Stansted to Reggio Calabria (26 Jul).
"As soon this check-in agent's error was realised, Ryanair rushed the device onto the next available flight to Reggio Calabria via Lamezia and arranged for a taxi to swiftly deliver the device directly to the passenger, which she received the following day (27 Jul)."
Stansted Airport said the issue was for the airline to address, not the airport.
Have you ever had trouble with missing luggage or equipment on flights? Let us know in the comments below.
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