Thursday, November 13, 2025 - An American mother is suing Qatar Airways after her young daughter allegedly suffered a severe allergic reaction after a flight attendant ignored her warnings and served the child a candy bar containing dairy, according to a lawsuit.
Swetha Neerukonda, 33, was on a Qatar Airways flight
with her 3-year-old daughter from Washington Dulles International Airport in
Virginia to Doha, Qatar, for a connecting flight on April 9 when the incident
unfolded, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Post.
Neerukonda had informed the cabin crew of her daughter’s
severe allergy to dairy and nuts before and during the flight, the lawsuit
claimed.
The mother stood up to use the bathroom and enlisted a
female Qatar flight attendant to watch her child, once again reminding her
about her daughter’s “potentially life-threatening allergy,” the filing
alleged.
When Neerukonda returned from the bathroom, she “shockingly”
discovered the flight attendant feeding her child a snack containing dairy, the
lawsuit claimed.
The tot was fed what appeared to be a Kit Kat bar, attorney
Abram Bohrer, who is representing Neerukonda, told The Post.
The alarmed mother then confronted the flight attendant, who
“responded by admitting that she had fed the … snack to the child, and who
mocked and mitigated [Neerukonda’s] concerns,” the complaint read.
The flight attendant “mocked her reaction. She belittled it. She essentially said, ‘I know better than you,” Bohrer said.
Within a short period of time, the child began to suffer
severe anaphylaxis. Her mental status and vital signs quickly declined, the
lawsuit continued.
Neerukonda then administered an EpiPen injection to her
daughter. No announcement was made over the flight’s loudspeaker, an apparent
procedural violation, the complaint alleged.
“Moreover, when [Neerukonda] sought to share information
with a fellow passenger whom she believed to be a witness, a… flight attendant
intervened, claiming that was in violation of the airline’s policy,” the
lawsuit stated.
After landing, the 3-year-old was cleared by paramedics to
get on a connecting flight to India, Boherer said.
She then suffered another severe rebound reaction upon
landing, and was admitted to the intensive care unit for two days of treatment,
he continued.
The lawsuit seeks for Qatar Airways to pay out a whopping
$5,000,000 to Neerukonda for the economic loss and “great pain, agony, and
mental anguish” the young child faced.
“A mom should be able to trust that a flight attendant could
keep an eye on her child for a few minutes,” Bohrer said.
“This is a young child who, through no fault of their own,
ends up attached to all these cables, wires, needles,” he continued.
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