Disabled Woman Dies Months After Falling While Deplaning Southwest Flight

A disabled Florida woman said to have been “thrown” from her wheelchair while deplaning a Southwest flight—a fiasco at Fort Lauderdale's airport that allegedly took place because employees refused to help her—died this month from injuries she sustained in the fall, her family wrote on GoFundMe. Gaby Assouline, 25, was paralyzed in the accident and was bedridden for 11 months before she died on Jan. 22. Assouline never spoke again after the accident and she was kept alive by a feeding tube, her mother said. The ordeal led Assouline's family to sue Southwest, placing the blame on the airline for her “catastrophic” injuries. Southwest responded in court saying Assouline refused help from flight attendants moments before her fall. “Gaby's life was tragically interrupted 11 months ago but she put up the greatest fight with grace, friends, laughter and the strong belief that she would leave the hospital and come home very soon,” the family wrote. “Unfortunately, complications robbed Gaby of that ending.”