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A mother traveling with her 4 year old experienced a harrowing time on a recent flight. After their flight suffered flight delays, they and other passengers were left on the tarmac for almost 2 hours. This resulted in the infant overheating as the temperature spiked in the cabin, with outside temperatures at 90 degrees. The infant was taken off the flight and treated at a local hospital for overheating.

France told the Denver Post that her child became overheated when the temperature in the cabin became unbearable. She said it was already hot when they boarded the plane, and the temperature spiked as they waited. “I really thought my son was going to die in my arms,” she told the Denver Post. “They were not equipped to handle it,” France said. “They couldn’t evacuate us. It was chaos.”

France boarded United Airlines flight 4644 around 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, expecting to take off thirty minutes later, NBC News reports. The temperature in Denver that day was 90 degrees. “There was just hot air coming from the vents,” France said.

Colorado mom angry at United after infant overheats while airplane sits on tarmac at DIA https://t.co/JrDGjsrV53

— The Denver Post (@denverpost) June 25, 2017

The flight was delayed to refuel due to a rerouting for bad weather. France and other passengers were allowed to exit the plane for 20 minutes, but were told to return because the plane was pushing away from the gate. France used wet wipes to try to keep him cool, and flight attendants brought her ice in garbage bags to try to help.

“His whole body flashed red and his eyes rolled back in his head and he was screaming,” France told the Denver Post. “And then he went limp in my arms. It was the worst moment of my life.”

While France and other passengers begged for an ambulance, the flight crew allegedly argued about the best way to handle the situation — pushing back to the gate or requesting rolling stairs. They let France stand by the open door at the front of the plane where she sobbed, holding her baby in her arms. She said her son was drifting in and out of consciousness, and she estimates it took the plane 30 minutes to return to the gate. United told ABC News it took 16 minutes from the time the pilots called the ambulance for it to arrive. She finally disembarked with her son at about 3:45 pm. Owen was treated and released from the hospital the next day.

In an emailed statement to The Denver Post, United said: “Yesterday, a child onboard flight 4644 at Denver International Airport experienced a medical issue while the aircraft was taxiing prior to takeoff. The pilot returned to the gate as our crew called for paramedics to meet the aircraft. Our thoughts are with the child and family, and we have been in contact to offer travel assistance.”

“This should never have happened,” United Airlines said in a statement to NBC News. “We are profoundly sorry to our customer and her child for the experience they endured. We are actively looking into what happened to prevent this from occurring again.”

“They seemed completely unprepared for a medical emergency,” France said.

Current regulations aren’t very comforting for passengers who experience this type of delay. At two hours they must provide bathroom breaks, drinks, and food. At three hours passengers can finally exit the aircraft. France thinks there should be some protocol for overheating. There should certainly be protocol for a child in medical distress.

“I’m sharing Owen’s story in the hopes that this never happens to anyone ever again,” France said.

It is often the language barrier that prevents people from travelling to other countries, as no one wants to make a complete idiot of themselves when they cannot speak Greek or French.

A group of three people who have named themselves IconBreak have come up with a pretty amazing solution to the language problem. They designed a t-shirt which is literally covered with all the icons you will need on a foreign holiday.

Their thoughts were that things like languages are best kept simple, and even children can recognise basic shapes. The shirt, when combined with hand signals, will start an interaction with a foreign person.

They say: ‘Simplicity was always a trait that united us in many forms. Call it lazy or genius, but we like to keep it simple. Hence follows our starting point of how to bridge the language barriers of our world: a shirt.’

‘Through a shirt you can – in the most rudimentary ways – combine gestures, vocals and mimics to create interaction. A shirt does not need to be recharged and still, you can have it on as long as you please.’

The shirt will give you the opportunity to point/try to ask for a drink, direction, airport, internet and so on. The t-shirt is full of simple icons which cover most situations a regular tourist may find themselves in.

Prices range from $22 to $44, and there are handbags available, as well as hats. Hats and bags have fewer icons than t-shirts, but still cover the basics you will need. You need never battle to be understood again.

One advantage of wearing the t-shirt is that it has no batteries which can run out, and needs no socket to plug in and recharge!

Normally when it comes to ‘big fish’ records, you may think of largemouth bass or even pike, but you may not ever think of sunfish! James Lucas set a new record for the sunfish when he landed one, weighing in at one pound, one ounce! While you may smile at the new record, you should consider that the way this record was set was somewhat different to using a rod and reel.

The use of a throwline means that the fisherman does not even have a rod and reel. The line is baited and simply tossed into the water. It is often referred to as the ‘alternative’ record, because of the different technique used.

James was fishing on a private pond in Lincoln county, when he felt the tug at the line and pulled up the ‘monster’.

Lucas says that he likes to use it because it is very challenging, and there is a certain amount of skill involved with it. It is actually a very primitive way to fish, and was the way fishing was done before rods and reels were invented.

The previous record stood at just 6 ounces, so James has a good reason to be proud of his new record!

Source: Wide Open Spaces

When you shout into caves, you expect to get echoes of your own voice coming back. This was not the case with Izaak Eglington-Watts, a teenager from Plymouth, who was out walking with his friend Emily Thompson. They discovered a strange looking cave and Izaak decided to shout into it.

To his horror, instead of an echo, he got a reply back! It was the voice of James Thompson, who had last been seen a month ago. Horrified at what he might find, Izaak called on two runners to help him. It turned out that 51 year old James had been stuck down the hole for at least a week and a half, after crawling there because he was injured.

“I was absolutely terrified. I did not expect a response back, but I am so happy he has been found,” Izaak said.

“It was only out of curiosity that I went and had a look down it; I didn’t think anything was going to be inside it.”

“I climbed down into it and asked Emily if she wanted to come in as well, but she said no. I kept shouting ‘hello’ over and over again to hear it echo, just out of fun and to make Emily jump,” he continues.

“Then I climbed up into another section which lead into another hole and shouted hello again, which is when I got a reply back. It obviously scared me as it was pitch black down there, and all I had was my phone flash, but I couldn’t really see anything.”

“We walked back up to get away from the area, but she still didn’t believe me that I’d heard somebody, so I said I would go back and record it to prove it to her.”

The video gives an idea of what the weird looking cave looked like and the horror of hearing a human voice. Izaak went down into the cave with only his phone as light, and found the cave in total darkness. Emily declined to follow him down. One section led to another and it was then that he heard the reply.

Emaciated and dehydrated, James was close to death when Izaak found him. He was very lucky to be alive, and very grateful that Izaak had called into the cave. It was traumatic enough being injured, but being stuck in a cave, thinking he would die there, was a horrific experience for James.

Izaak says that he expected to find rats or pigeons down there, but definitely did not expect a man to answer.