Children's Rash Grounds Family in Japan

Flying abroad with toddlers can be trying enough, but as a Prior Lake couple found out last week, a child's rash can get you kicked off your flight.

George Victor and his wife, Lian Victor-Tan, said they were stuck in Narita, Japan, for a stressful 24 hours after rashes their 21-month-old twins developed in Singapore caused Northwest Airlines officials to pull them off the flight just before takeoff.

It wasn't until the next day, when a Singapore physician who had treated them faxed a letter to the Narita airport, that the family was allowed to fly home.

"It was an emotional roller coaster," Victor said. "We were beat up. I just thank God I got my family home instead of being stranded there another three or four days."

Despite the inconvenience to the Prior Lake family, medical and travel experts said Northwest was more than justified to remove the family from the flight.

Experts warn that travelers should be prepared to prove they are safe to fly.

"If airlines are being good stewards of public health, they should be on the lookout for persons with potentially infectious diseases and take measures to prevent transmission to the rest of the traveling public," said Dr. Francisco Averhoff, who directs the Global Migration and Quarantine Division of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. Since Asian Bird Flu and the SARS virus drew international attention in recent years, Averhoff said "airlines have had a heightened awareness of the risk of infectious diseases during travel."

He said removing ill passengers not only protects others on the flight "enclosed for an extended period of time," but assures the potentially sick person will be close to medical care.

"Some illnesses progress rapidly and you don't want to be ill at 30,000 feet," he said.

A case-by-case policy

Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski confirmed that the family's flight returned to the gate in Japan last week. He said the airline accepts ill passengers on a case-by-case basis, allowing them to fly if they have a recent medical certificate from a doctor or clinic saying they are safe to travel.

Terry Trippler, a travel expert based in Minneapolis, also said Northwest employees acted properly, adding that the case points up how consumers need to take precautions so they aren't caught up in such entanglements.

"The people who were taking their children should have carried with them the information from the doctor in Singapore and covered all their bases," Trippler said. "This is the way you have to do it now. It's not so much because of terrorism. It's because of the SARS situation."

A lesson learned

The twins' father, George Victor, said that in the future, he would definitely carry a letter from a doctor if there's any chance of being questioned.

The Prior Lake family left Jan. 10 for Singapore for the 60th wedding anniversary of Lian Victor-Tan's parents. There, 21-month-old twins, Paris and George Victor IV, developed rashes in the hot, humid weather. A Singapore family physician and a dermatologist examined the babies, determined the rashes weren't measles or chickenpox and prescribed creams, Victor said.

Tuesday, at a Singapore airport where the family was beginning their trip home, a Northwest counter clerk noticed the rashes and questioned whether it could be chickenpox or measles. But the couple showed the prescribed creams and flew to Japan, Victor said.

That's where the trouble began. Northwest employees again questioned what had caused the rashes on the babies' faces. Victor and his wife again insisted the rashes weren't chicken pox or measles and weren't contagious. They pulled out the creams and physician receipts.

The family was allowed to board. A flight attendant asked about the rashes and after hearing the explanation, said "fine," Victor said.

But as the 747 taxied out to the runway, he said, the head flight attendant approached and questioned whether the children had chicken pox. Minutes later, the captain announced that the plane was returning to the gate.

At the gate, a Northwest customer service manager boarded and asked where the Victors had stowed their belongings. "He started grabbing our stuff," Victor said. "I was like, `This can't be happening.'-"

A Northwest employee escorted them to an airport clinic, which was closed. She and the family then took separate cabs to a hospital at least 30 miles away, at the airlines' insistence and expense, Victor said.

"The kids were hungry and tired," he said. "They're 21 months old and wanted to go to bed. We were there for more than four hours. The doctor said they don't have chicken pox."

But before the doctor would give them a letter stating that, he wanted the children back the next day for tests, and for the parents to pay, said Victor.

Some extra costs

Northwest Airlines put the family up in a hotel but refused to pay for meals and a $15 phone bill for two calls, Victor said. The family had no Japanese currency, and didn't know how to find the U.S. embassy, Victor said.

Lian Victor-Tan called the Singapore doctor, who was at first reluctant to fax a letter. After Victor-Tan, who is trained as a microbiologist, described the kids' symptoms he relented and the family arrived back home in Minnesota on Wednesday.

"When you travel, you can't take things for granted nowadays," Victor said. "You need to educate yourself so that if something like this happens, you need to know who to contact at a U.S. embassy."

A TIP FOR TRAVELERS

To avoid being denied a flight because of a rash or a detectable illness, Northwest officials and travel experts suggest travelers carry a medical certificate from a doctor or clinic, dated as close to the departure date as possible, saying you are safe to fly. Northwest will pay for rebooked flights in such cases for up to 90 days.

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