Woman with Muscular Dystrophy reveals ‘traumatic’ flight home for the holidays

A disability advocate and influencer with a rare form of muscular dystrophy shared her heartbreaking experiences while traveling home on vacation.

Nila Morton, 25, is a graduate student at Howard University and suffers from Ullrich – a genetic condition that leaves her wheelchair-bound with limited mobility.

She was excited to travel from Washington DC back to South Carolina to visit her family for Thanksgiving after not seeing them in almost a year, but her trip quickly turned sour.

In an emotional TikTok, Morton claimed that airport and Delta flight staff were unprepared to meet her needs – with people dropping her and damaging her wheelchair.

Morton gave more details about the ‘traumatic’ ordeal People magazinebeginning when she arrived at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

She told the outlet, “I had to wait until all the passengers had deplaned before special assistance came to help me.

‘Then I saw the employee with the hallway chair and another employee came over. I told them I needed a full lift as I have limited mobility.

‘As they tried to lift, they dropped me and hit my tailbone and the left side of my body. I immediately felt pain and also got bruises from the fall.’

Morton revealed that the injuries she suffered during this incident caused her great pain and ruined her Thanksgiving.

“The whole time I was home for Thanksgiving, I was in pain. “I thought I would be okay because I know that sometimes when I’m in pain, my disease makes it worse and takes longer to heal,” she told People.

“But I knew something was wrong when I started to feel uncomfortable sitting in my wheelchair or lying on my left side.”

In the first video she made about her experience, she tearfully said she “didn’t want to say much about it” but couldn’t ignore the painful pain.

Her return trip to DC only made matters worse.

Morton’s December 2 Delta flight had a stopover in Atlanta. She said the airline had to postpone the flight because they had trouble getting her wheelchair on the plane.

She was stunned by this setback, as she had confirmed that the airline had previously been able to accommodate her wheelchair.

When the plane landed in Atlanta, Morton claims she again had to wait for everyone to get off the plane before two people — a young woman and an older man — came to help her into an aisle seat.

Morton told People: ‘Nervously, I asked them if they were confident in their ability to help me safely, especially after being dropped off the week before.

‘They said I didn’t have to worry about anything. The young woman grabbed my upper body incorrectly and the older man corrected her grip.’

She said this interaction only increased her concern, as staff members seemed to lack confidence in their ability to maneuver her safely out of the chair.

When she expressed her fears again, Morton claimed the staff members became irritated and rude.

“I asked them again to make sure they wouldn’t drop me, but they became dismissive and started making comments under their breath,” she told People.

“That made me feel like I was a burden or a problem just because I wanted to make sure I didn’t suffer any further damage, especially since I was in pain from the first incident.”

After she got off the plane, Morton was shocked to discover that the headrest of her wheelchair was severely deformed.

She said the person who brought the wheelchair to her claimed they had to remove the headrest to make the seat fit on the plane.

Morton told People: ‘I couldn’t understand how removing the headrest had caused so much damage, and my concerns about the way the staff handled my wheelchair only increased.’

When Morton, already feeling bewildered and defeated, finally arrived in DC, she was in for another unpleasant surprise.

‘Once again I waited until all passengers had disembarked before I got help. “When the staff took me to my wheelchair, I noticed the joystick cover was missing,” she told the outlet.

‘This was the final straw after an already traumatic experience.’

She asked to report the damage to her wheelchair, but said her request was ignored and she was only taken to the baggage carousel to collect her luggage.

Morton described the final part of her travel nightmare to People: “I was overwhelmed by his lack of empathy and just wanted to go home.

“I asked if he could stay to load my luggage into my Uber, and he agreed. He told me to follow him to the area where the Uber would pick me up, which was Terminal 2, Zone 1. When we got there, he dropped off my bags and left.”

Morton said she waited in the cold for at least 13 minutes before the Uber arrived. Fortunately, the driver helped her with her belongings, but she felt “abandoned, frustrated and defeated.”

In response to the incident, Delta wrote in a statement to People: “We sincerely apologize for this customer’s experience and our Customer Care team is involved. We treat the rights of our customers with disabilities with the utmost seriousness.”

In the first video she made about her experience, she said that she has difficulty driving with her chair because her controller is missing.

“Traveling home and back shouldn’t be that hard,” Morton said.

‘Experiencing life shouldn’t be so difficult, but that’s because you can.’

The influencer received an overwhelming amount of support online, with viewers saying they understand her frustration and that she deserved better treatment.

Morton posted follow-up videos about her travel situation on Thanksgiving. On December 4, she said Delta had not contacted her to try to rectify the situation.

She said she filed a claim with the airline and was waiting for someone to contact her.

Morton added that she consulted her doctor about her fall and they suggested she have imaging done to assess the severity of her injuries.

Two days later, she posted another TikTok, revealing that Delta had offered to fix her wheelchair.

However, she said it was “very disappointing” that no one had addressed her claim that she had been dismissed and assaulted by staff.