Jacksonville woman's luggage lost by Frontier Airlines, contains device critical to her health

A Jacksonville woman is distraught after a commercial airline says they lost her luggage.

She just had a medical device surgically implanted into her body, in California, to help relieve neck and back pain. She packed the battery in her checked luggage.

The battery operation is vital to her recovery.

When she arrived in Jacksonville on Sunday, her bag and battery weren't there.

Action News Jax's Courtney Cole spoke to the woman who says this means she may now have to undergo surgery all over again.

Debra Caravella says she's suffered with neck and back pain for the last 15 years of her life.

She traveled to Silicon Valley, California on Frontier Airlines, for an opportunity to finally get  some relief from a device known as a neurostimulator.

"I had to have two trial surgeries, which were about two hours,” Caravella told Action News Jax.

Caravella says once doctors realized it would be an effective solution -- she endured eight more hours of surgery, during which doctors implanted stimulators in her neck and back.

"Shortly (after) my surgery, we had to come back here,” Caravella said.

She showed us the scars from the incisions on her back.

On the return flight, she says she packed all of her critical medical supplies in a checked bag because her doctor ordered her not to lift anything.

But when she landed in Jacksonville on Sunday, she realized her bag didn’t make it..

"All my medication is in there, all my charging equipment. And it’s not just my medication for this, it’s medication I’ve been taking for years you can’t just stop taking!" Caravella exclaimed.

There’s also a remote that goes with the device, which now says "stimulator battery low."

She can’t use the remote or the device, until she gets her bag, which she still has not received.

“I’ve called them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, today,” Caravella told Cole.

But no one at Frontier seems to be able to help.

"Nobody can tell me where my bag is, nobody cares where my bag is.”

Caravella received a call right from Frontier after our interview, with the person on the other end of the phone promising again Thursday, that her luggage would be sent.

Since she's been without her battery for so long, she says she might now have to go through a fifth surgery.

“I don’t want to have this taken out of my body because of their negligence!” Caravella said.

Cole called and e-mailed Frontier Airlines throughout the day.

She received this response from  Thursday evening from the Jonathan Freed, the Director of Corporate Communications for Frontier Airlines:

“Frontier prides itself on running a safe, efficient, and reliable airline. Sometimes, as happens in this industry, things do not go as planned. In this case, it took longer than it should have for our business partner that runs the baggage operation to locate the passenger’s checked bag. The bag has been located and is now in final transit to our customer and will arrive today by special delivery. We are investigating to learn why this occurred so that we can take corrective action. We deeply regret that this baggage delay occurred and have apologized to our customer for the inconvenience this situation has caused. We have also provided a full refund.“

UPDATE: 

Caravella contacted Cole just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday to let her know she has finally been re-united with her luggage, however a piece of the equipment is missing to charge the remote for her stimulator.

Cox Media Group