Thoughts on woman who died at Phoenix airport
This morning, Jeffrey wrote a post about Carol Anne Gotbaum's family suing the city of Phoenix for her death. Right after she accidentally strangled herself with her handcuffs while she was in police custody at the Phoenix Sky International Airport, I wrote about it. Her mental illness and desperation, plus the heightened security at airports, and the anxiety that goes with air travel made for a bad combo. Regardless of whether procedures were followed or not, I wonder what the procedures are exactly? If one goes off ones rocker, one hopes for a better result.
In the movie, "Meet the Savages," there's a brief scene when Laura Linney's character is helping her father who has dementia make it to the bathroom of an airplane when flying with him back to New York from where he was living in Arizona. His pants fall down while he is standing in the aisle. No one reacts. What if someone had become irate? A small scene could have become a big one.
I was just in the Phoenix airport two weeks ago Friday dashing with a group of thirty to catch a plane since our Southwest flight was almost two hours delayed. The jaunt between the two gates was a goodly amount and I had the task of keeping track of the five people assigned to me. Everyone in my group was sane and not drinking and kept checking to make sure we were all accounted for. I can't imagine navigating an airport of that size if under duress.
I feel bad for both sides and it's unfortunate Gotbaum isn't around to explain what was going on in her head that day. As a person who has worked with people with mental illness, when I watched the tape back when I wrote a previous post, I did think, "Oh boy. What an unfortunate mess."
Filed under: United States, Airports, News, Travel Health
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mar 27th 2008 @ 9:07PM
Slappy said...
My question is this: Why in heaven's name was she flying ALONE? If memory serves, the family knew this woman had difficulties. At what point does it become the responsibility of the family to watch out for her.
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Mar 27th 2008 @ 10:22PM
Dave said...
Hindsight is 20/20, and surely there were some poor judgements made, however the sentence for that mistake should not be DEATH!
They handcuffed to a bench. She couldn't eat, couldn't drink, couldn't go to the bathroom without intervention by her captors. At that point, regardless of what came before, the responsiblity for her saftey was their's.... period, the end.
Mar 27th 2008 @ 11:00PM
Slappy said...
@Dave: I agree that once she was handcuffed her safety was the responsibility of the 'authorities.'
However, isn't that also a case of hindsight? If she hadn't been handcuffed, she wouldn't be dead. This is true but it is just as true that if she wasn't allowed to travel alone in the first place she wouldn't be dead.
Frankly, if I were one of the airport employees, I would sue the family for the emotional distress caused by doing my job.
Mar 27th 2008 @ 11:40PM
Mole Wisdom said...
Hi Slappy:
"This is true but it is just as true that if she wasn't allowed to travel alone in the first place she wouldn't be dead."
Well, if we look at it that way, I guess it is also true that she wouldn't be dead if she wasn't born in the first place, or if her parents weren't born in the first place, or so on...
But seriously, while her traveling alone is related to her death, the chain put around her neck is the direct cause for her death. And who chained the handcuffed woman to a bench in a locked room?
When a parent leaves a twelve-year-old child alone in the house and the child dies in a kitchen accident, the parent will be arrested. Why should the police be left off the hook for causing a death? Just because they are following procedures, no matter how inhumane the procedures are?
In the hypothetical situation above, at least, the child is not powerlessly chained to a metal bench.
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Mar 31st 2008 @ 1:19AM
Slappy said...
Hi Mole,
I guess I read a different article, I read that she managed to twist herself around to choke herself with the 'cuffs. The articles I read also indicated that the poor woman had a history of difficulties.
You raise a great point around the negligence aspect, I'm not trying to absolve the authorities (my understanding it was airport security, hence my hedge). What I'm trying to say is that ALL responsible parties should take their share.
Apr 1st 2008 @ 3:23AM
Mole Wisdom said...
Hi Slappy,
We read the same story - she died in an accident choking herself. I certainly didn't mean the police "put" the chain around her neck. Sorry for the confusion.
What I meant to say was that if the chain were not there, the chain-choking death would not have occurred. Without the chain, maybe she could have banged her head against the wall and died that way (and possibly, this was the reason the police decided to chain her handcuffed hands to a bench -- unfortunately, this "protection from herself" did not work out as planned). But then, we would be speculating. So we can only assign blame based on what actually happened: Without the chain, no chain-choking death. Any other factor (her husband's not being there, her temper and tirade, etc.) is secondary and indirect. Therefore, the main blame (if not all the blame) should be assigned to the police.
I hesitate to blame the husband or the family for the accident, for these reasons:
1. The woman was an adult; I doubt the husband is legally empowered to keep her in the house.
2. The husband could certainly have flown with her. And he could have gone with her everywhere. But when would she get agitated and lose her temper? Should he go with her to the locker room and the bathroom, too? Where to draw the line? What if she insisted to go alone?
3. Trust is important for recovering mental patients. If she said she was fine, what was the husband to do? I guess the husband could have tailed her.
Even if the husband had gone with her, no one can tell whether he could have calmed her. What if he couldn't control her? What if he got angry as well and started arguing with her? What if they were both arrested? What if they were both handcuffed and chained to benches? What if the airport police used the stun gun on both them and they both died with a bad reaction to the stun gun? The point is that in speculation, anything could have happened - so it's futile to speculate. We can be certain only about what happened. So what if she had a history of difficulties, so what if she flew alone, so what if she lost her temper, so what if she was detained; none of those really matters. The only thing that matters is that if there were no chain on the woman or if the police kept an eye on her, she would not have choked on the chain and died.
I bet this is not the first time that someone has been detained by airport security for "making a scene" - and I would bet that not all of them have a history of mental difficulties. People get agitated and angry (though some more so than others), especially with so many unreasonable rules at the airport these days. If a hundred "normal" people were handcuffed and chained to a bench, I won't be surprised if one of them tried to "get out" or into a more comfortable position. Carol Anne Gotbaum happened to be one who tried to "get out" and she died in a freak accident. So, maybe the "mental difficulties" factor is to shift the public's attention from "the city's problem" to "her problem" and "the husband's problem."
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