'I Thought She Was Going Home': Plaintiff Dies During Litigation Against Southwest Airlines

'I Thought She Was Going Home': Plaintiff Dies During LitigationAgainst Southwest Airlines (Click Here)

A Plantation attorney’s focus has shifted from negligence to wrongful death in litigation involving a young woman whofell out of her electric wheelchair at Fort Lauderdale International Airport on a Southwest Airline jetway, resulting in abroken neck.

The family of the woman, Gabrielle Assouline, has just announced the 24 year-old has died.
“I thought that she was going home. That’s what we thought: She was going home,” said her attorney Robert Solomanof Law Office of Saban & Solomon.

Assouline, of Miami-Dade, was traveling from Fort Lauderdale to Denver to see her sister 11 months ago whenthe incident occurred. She had been hospitalized, on a ventilator, ever since.

Assouline filed a lawsuit in March 2022 in Broward Circuit Court.

Solomon alleged the airline and others share responsibility for Assouline ending up paralyzed from the neck downbefore her death, because they had proof the passenger needed help.

“It ends in death,” the attorney said. “Eleven months fighting for her life, and the defense that they have come up with isthat she refused help, and she clearly cannot defend herself from the grave. But we have sworn testimony from her prior to her passing and she indicates she was never offered and never refused assistance.”

Request for Assistance?
The lawsuit alleges Southwest Airlines was negligent in its duty to protect itscustomer.
“I know specifically about these jet ways, because I have another case againstthem,” Solomon said. “In Orlando, for a very similar situation. So they know aboutthese dangerous jet bridges, they’ve been sued before … and they didn’t warn her orhelp her.”
The amended suit will now shift from Assouline to her family as plaintiffs.
The lawsuit also involves Irving-based G2 Secure Staff, the contractor providing wheelchair escorts at the FortLauderdale airport and Broward County.

Assouline was traveling from Fort Lauderdale to Denver on Feb. 25. She suffered from a condition that required her touse a wheelchair for long distances, according to court documents.
The lawsuit alleged Assouline asked for assistance to be wheeled down the jet bridge, but was denied by a Southwestsupervisor, who has since been removed as a defendant in the case.

As she was wheeling herself down the bridge, she was “caused to be thrown from the wheelchair, thereby sustainingcatastrophic/life-altering personal injuries,” the suit said.

Multimillion-Dollar Suit
Solomon said “junctions” function as separators in the jet bridge.

“These things create a steep angle, and when you’re going down a jet bridge, it could—and did—tilt the chair forward,”he claimed. ”This is why Southwest has policies and procedures that they should be taking people backwards down thejet bridge for this exact reason.”

Solomon said his client’s death comes as a shock, as the family was preparing for her to come home soon.
“Originally we had a girl that needed $1 million to $2 million a year in care because insurance wasn’t paying for it,” hesaid. “Now that whole focus has shifted to the parents’ loss. … They’re entitled to [damages for] the loss of the child—their pain and suffering.”

“I watched this for 11 months,” Solomon said. “I was at the hospital day in and day out with this family, and I don’t thinkanybody’s in a better position to tell the story of how gut-wrenching this was, and now she isn’t going home.”