A Dubai-based airline under fire after a woman with celiac disease claimed she suffered explosive diarrhea due to an alleged “pastry mix-up” has confirmed that it is investigating the dangerous mistake.
The airline issued a statement Wednesday after Chloë Chapdelaine, a 25-year-old TikTok star, went viral last week with her account of her gastric distress aboard a 15-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates to Los Angeles.
“We are disappointed to hear Ms. Chapdelaine’s complaint,” an Emirates spokesperson told The Post in an email on Wednesday.
“Emirates aims to cater to all passenger specific needs by offering a number of special meals that cover as many medical, dietary and religious requirements as possible. The safety and health of our customers is taken very seriously,” the rep said.
“Ms. Chapdelaine has reached out to our Customer Affairs team, and we are investigating the issue,” she added.
In the TikTok video she shot from a cramped toilet on the plane, the Canadian content creator said that he has been viewed more than 2 million times that she had selected gluten-free meal options but was served a croissant that contained the substance she hadn’t eaten in nine years.
She called it the “worst flight of my life” as she teared up.
“I do feel like celiac disease is not taken as seriously [as nut allergies] at times,” Chapdelaine says.
“I do feel that people with food allergies or sensitivities deserve to exist safely and be taken seriously in their medical condition and that’s not always the case,” she adds.
The clip included footage of the crap-inducing croissant.
“I am very highly sensitive and my celiac disease will react to a trace amount or cross-contamination,” Chapdelaine told Kennedy News. “To be told I had eaten half a non-gluten-free croissant, which is quite a large amount and bigger than what I have reacted to in the past, was really scary for me.”
She said she forced herself to throw up to try and rid herself of the gluten.
“I went to the bathroom and made myself physically sick and was in there for about an hour throwing up, which was horrible,” Chapdelaine. “I knew if I didn’t do that it would cause my body a lot more damage.
“I could feel the other symptoms starting straight away as well and it just got worse from there,” she continued. “I started getting really bad stomach cramping, I got diarrhea, I felt nauseous and my skin started itching.”
The attendants were sympathetic towards her, she said, but she later filed an official complaint with the airline.
Celiac disease is a condition in which the immune system attacks sufferers’ tissues when they consume gluten, a protein naturally found in certain cereal grains. The resulting damage to the small intestine prevents the body from take in nutrients.
In addition, to diarrhea, the disease also can cause abdominal pain and bloating, among other things.
