A FOVANT mum is battling with an airline to get her disabled son’s specialist car seat replaced after it was “smashed into pieces”.

Lucy Dunn was travelling back to Heathrow Airport from therapy at Bydgoszcz, Poland on June 1 with her son Louis, who has a rare genetic condition that left him unable to walk and talk.

On arrival at the London airport Lucy says the car seat was “smashed into three pieces” and immediately flagged it up to airport staff and contacted the airline, Lufthansa, to make a complaint.

Due to his condition Louis has a specialist car seat which is bigger than a standard one and makes it easier for his mum Lucy to lift him in and out of the car. The specialist seat cost £1,835.

Salisbury Journal:

After the seat was broken, Lucy had to spend over a week without a specialist car seat which she relies on to take Louis to his therapies, nursery and doctors’ appointments.

Fortunately, she was able to get his old car seat back from a friend but says it is still “unsuitable” for Louis’ needs, especially for long journeys.

“It is frustrating. There is nothing I can do,” said Lucy.

“We just feel as if we’re being treated like rubbish and it’s entirely their fault. It is disgraceful. They have not even apologised.”

Lucy says she had to wait until June 17 for a response from the airline’s customer service department. It has since said it will be ‘investigating’ the matter further.

“It is coming on a month. If it was a standard car seat it would have been sorted,” said Lucy.

“If a standard car seat would work for us then I would just go out and buy another one but it has to be specially made. We’ve still got to order one so we are still going to be waiting a month. It’s a joke. This is Germany’s National Airline.”

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said: “Lufthansa sincerely apologies for the damage caused to Ms Dunn’s luggage. Our Customer Relations is currently in contact with her and working on providing a refund for the damages caused.”