Date: 201410
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZZZ.Airport, US
Aircraft: A320
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Flight Attendant (On Duty)
Reporter qualification: Flight Attendant Current
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Illness / Injury
Detector: Person Flight Attendant
When detected: Aircraft In Service At Gate
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Human Factors
Primary problem: Ambiguous

Narrative: Upon arriving to gate area I observed a passenger approx age 65 face down in the boarding area on the floor with her face in a plastic bag regurgitating violently. She was unable to stand and kept falling over. She was sweating profusely; clammy; feverish; disoriented and seemed to be extremely ill. I brought this to the attention to the agents; the cabin crew and flight deck crew. We decided to interview the passenger and her husband traveling with her before boarding. They were evaluated by the agents; myself and a traveling police officer paramedic. I also have a mini paramedic certification from the Ft Lauderdale Fire Dept. It was decided as a collective group that we would also contact Medlink for a 2nd opinion. The Flight Attendants; Agents and Flight Deck were all in agreement. I contacted the Nurse on Duty. I gave him the scenario and symptoms. The age of the passenger in question. It seemed unlikely to be typical alcohol poisoning as often in ZZZ. The husband and wife both stated they had drank and ate the same items. Yet; he was just fine. However; she seemed severely ill due to some unknown reason. She claimed food from a buffet with hopes of just getting on and being allowed to travel so we would not think it was something worse or contagious.  She was also holding her chest and looked to have breathing difficulties at one point as well. After the evaluation myself; the police officer paramedic and the Medlink Nurse as well as the entire Flight Crew were a vote of NO on boarding in support of the Medlink Denied Boarding requested. Authorization code # XXXXXX.  Yet; the [Customer Service Representative] came onboard and brow beat the Capt and our crew into taking this passenger anyway even with three trained medical opinions requesting a denied boarding to protect the safety of passengers and crew. As well as ensure the integrity of the flight to prevent a potential divert if the passenger became too ill to complete the flight. We agreed to allow the passenger to board only due to being pressured to do so by the ground staff. I feel this sets a very dangerous precedent during a time of Ebola rising in the abroad and now in the US. We are placing revenue above safety and risk to our crew and passengers. If this was in ZZZ1 with not ZZZ routing in the schedule then I would have held my ground on these three medical opinions. Yet; since it was ZZZ I just accepted the ground managers poor judgment decision and hoped for the best. We need better and more advanced training for our ground staff. I was not going to make much of an issue of this since luckily for us the flight landed without event. The passenger in question passed out and became unconscious for most of the flight. She only woke up 30 mins before landing seeming completely disoriented and staggering around and then made it back to her seat with no further event. I plan to copy this to OSHA now since I feel that our company is purposely placing our crew and passengers at risk over these unsafe and poor judgment decisions. Due to setting a precedent that it is okay to pressure Flight Attendants to override Medlink and board passengers anyway. Even Though; a Denied Boarding was requested since the medical risk seemed too high to allow a passenger to continue. All simply because the company does not want to lose the revenue and the agent doesn't want to deal with the inconvenience of a denied boarding passenger. This is simply unacceptable and this behavior needs to be addressed by our airline as well as OSHA. This is particularly most disturbing during the beginning of an Ebola Pandemic in our country.




Synopsis: Upon arrival in the boarding area for departure; a Flight Attendant notes one of the passengers being violently ill. The passenger is interviewed by a paramedic on the flight and Medlink is contacted. All agree that the passenger should not be boarded but the Customer Service Representative overrules everyone and brow beats the crew into accepting the ill passenger.