Tammi worked for US Airways and after the merger, for American Airlines.

04 January 2016:
‘I've been sick now for days. Sickness began on a trip I worked over Christmas. Being stubborn and very dedicated to my job I pushed on thinking and hoping it would pass as long as I got plenty of rest on my layovers. It didn't get better and it resulted in me having to call off my last trip. So I have laid In bed and stayed in my house for the past 3 days. Though my sinuses seem better my neck and head still hurt! The lymph node in my neck is still swollen...... It's clear my body isn't able to expel the toxins as quickly as it once was. What's frustrating to me is this how do I continue to work if my body reacts to even the slightest residue of fuel in the cabin. If I can no longer work how do I afford the detox protocall..... I'm working now and sticking to a protocall of gluten free, vitamins, and bio identical hormones is breaking the bank literally! I have NO savings and though I only spend about $1400 @ month in living expenses (rent. Insurance, car payment, utilities...) it's costing so much to maintain health to be able to work. I honestly don't know how others do it!!!! Perhaps having help from a spouses income or some one else helping you..... But trying to keep this up by ones self is hard and any outside or emergency expense is enough to put you in the negative balance. I try to keep working so I won't become a burden to anyone and yet the exposure threatens to take my health. It's a double edged sword. I wish there was more awareness and that the detox protocalls were covered by insurance. Then people like myself could at least get help. I want to leave but where do I go with no other skills or degrees. So here I am playing Russian Roulette with my life. It's funny you know I fly with so many people who are suffering from exposure (usually to small amounts over time) and I can see the symptoms even if they can't. Some are in denial and some are just PLANE clueless....... But it's there!! I wouldn't have allowed myself to fall in love with this job if I had known it would have affected my health so badly. Now I'm trapped. This is how I feel today sick and trapped.’

‘Now it’s July 2019.
In August of that same year I was In yet another bad acute Fume Exposure. I went to work feeling functional and by the end of the day I was in a Fume intoxicated haze in the ER in LAS diagnosed with pneumonia. I had flown CLT to MIA the MIA to LAS all the while telling the crew something is wrong with this Aircraft “there are fumes in the Cabin I can’t any longer smell them but my body is telling me they are here.” The entire crew blew it off making excuses.... yet one crew member even said she smelled it and another claimed to be suffering a headache, and passengers were sick some throwing up and having horrible coughing fits.... one passenger came to the back galley asking if we could smell that fuel?!?!?! .......but no one including the Captain, FO or mechanic I alerted on our short turn in MIA wanted to listen to me. Flash forward to today. Since that exposure in August my respiratory health has vastly declined and I live with a nebulizer in close reach almost all the time. I have been diagnosed with RADs and I have basically been forced to retire. Now I have no health insurance and can’t even afford my Thyroid medicine. I can’t seem to work a 40 hour a week job which is needed to maintain health insurance and am now at risk of loosing my rental home for which my rent is only $550.00 a month. It looks like being homeless is my next adventure. It’s just unreal to think this has happened to not just me but I know others. I have been trying to mentally wrap my head around the possibility that I will soon be homeless or that I might die because I can’t afford treatment when I get sick or my meds. My hope is this will change and that soon no one will know the mental physical and emotional pain that can come with these exposures. One of the most cruel things is that you feel you’ve lost not just your health but your dignity as well. I am now just trying to survive. In survival mode you are not really living but merely going through the motions in hope you can one day live again. Today I am still alive so that’s something!’