EasyJet pays dead passenger’s family £165,000 for failing to spot stroke

He was flown to the UK unable to speak or move.

EasyJet have paid £165,000 to the family of a grandfather who suffered a stroke while on one of their flights.

Keith Tarry became ill moments before the flight took off in April 2017, but received little help from airline staff, who failed to spot what had happened.

Instead, he spent the journey from Mallorca to the UK unable to speak or move, with one concerned crew member handing him a glass of water which went untouched.

When he landed at Stansted Airport, he was escorted from the plane in a wheelchair and met by his stunned wife and daughters, who then called paramedics.

The stroke meant Mr Tarry had to move from Palma and into a nursing home in Worthing, West Sussex, and he died of an unrelated illness aged 90 last month.

His wife Angela, 80, insists her husband would have lived longer if he had been treated correctly by staff on the easyJet flight.

She had spoken to her husband of 59 years shortly before he left for the airport, who told her: ‘I’ll see you soon’.

The retired psychotherapist said: ‘I feel like my husband was cheated out of the last couple of years of his life. He was a very strong, fit man and could have gone on for longer.

‘I think he could have made a quicker recovery if the staff had noticed he’d had a stroke. They should have called for a doctor before they took off.

‘With strokes, you have to act fast. Their training at easyJet is absolutely excellent, I know that, so why did they not do anything for Keith?

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‘I am appalled by the negligence and, quite frankly, I can never forgive the crew members who were working.

‘Where was their human compassion for an elderly gentleman who can’t move out of his seat? I can never come to terms with that.’

Mrs Tarry added: ‘We were told that after he boarded the plane, one of the crew members was concerned about him.

‘I can’t believe that they were so concerned that they asked other passengers to look after him.’

Mr Tarry’s family launched legal proceedings against the budget airline and won a High Court battle.

The grandfather-of-one was a retired contractor for a US construction company and had lived in Mallorca for 40 years, but forgot these things after the stroke.

He spoke French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Russian, and would often say words in those languages instead as he recovered.

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Mr Tarry’s family were awarded £165,000 in June this year, which Mrs Tarry said mainly covered the costs of her husband’s nursing home.

She continued: ‘This case wasn’t about the money. The money is chicken feed to easyJet – we didn’t do it for that.

‘If I could get the crew in front of me, I would like to say to them: “How could you allow this to happen?” I would like them to explain and to see some remorse.

‘The worst part about it is they are trained to notice these things, and every year they have to re-do the training, too.’

Ben Davey, of Dean Wilson Solicitors, who brought the claim, said: ‘There have been well publicised “FAST” campaigns stressing the importance of timely medical intervention in respect to strokes, and it was a real shame that this did not happen with Mr Tarry.

‘I am pleased that after over two years of fighting for their Dad that the family finally have some closure over the matter.

‘I hope that easyJet have reflected on the incident and have taken appropriate steps to ensure that this never happens again.’

An easyJet spokesperson told the family that despite their training, cabin crew staff did not ‘identify’ Mr Tarry’s stroke.

They said: ‘We at easyJet are very sorry that we did not reach the standards expected of us on this occasion.

‘The safety and wellbeing of our customers is our highest priority and we have learnt lessons from this.’