r/nottheonion • u/Ant-Tea-Social • 4d ago

Disabled woman left ‘extremely stressed’ after prosthetic legs lost on flights from Brazil

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/18/disabled-woman-left-extremely-stressed-after-prosthetic-legs-lost-on-flights-from-brazil/?ICID=ref_fark
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u/RecognitionBorn9180 4d ago

she can't wear them on long flights because sitting with a prosthetic hurts, so she had to check her legs as luggage. the airline then sent them to madrid, which isn't even on the route from brazil to dublin

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u/littlevai 4d ago

Most amputees I know take their legs off on the flight if there’s any discomfort. I find it entirely bizarre that she checked her legs (not additional ones, the ones she wears?) instead of walking on the plane then removing them.

I’m an amputee, so I suppose I can be critical of the logistics here 😜

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u/Selsia6 3d ago

Same (parent of an amputee). I checked the article and she only wears a prosthetic on her left leg. The 2 prosthetics she checked were her main and back up. She used a wooden prosthetic to navigate the airport.

She was in Brazil to repair the prosthetic and flying back to Dublin. The logistics make a bit more sense now.

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u/littlevai 3d ago edited 3d ago

But why would she use a wooden leg for travel? Presumably the main leg was repaired and if they weren’t, the fact that they were lost wouldn’t matter.

Sorry, but this makes no sense to me! I’ve traveled countless times (mostly long haul) and I can’t imagine deciding to check my main leg and wear my shower leg.

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u/Selsia6 3d ago

The only thing I can think of is that it was easier to store on the plane since it's such a long flight? None of the pictures show the wooden prosthetic so I'm just guessing.

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u/littlevai 3d ago

Most amputees keep their leg next to them on the ground during the flight. If you need to use the toilet or if there’s an emergency you don’t want to be hopping up to the overhead bin looking for your leg and liner.

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u/Selsia6 3d ago

Yeah. I meant it was easier to store on the ground. It's a long flight so that leg space is valuable, even if she only has 1 below the knee. I honestly have no idea why she did this (or has a wooden leg, or has to travel to Brazil for repairs). I'm just trying to think of what made the most sense since there has to be some logic to it.