Man bleeding from head after hair transplant, wife arrested for refusing to get off Florida flight

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A man, who was heavily bleeding from his head after a hair transplant, and his wife were arrested early Tuesday morning after they refused to get off their flight in Miami, according to police.

The man, Eugenio Hernandez-Garnier, 27, boarded his American Airlines flight bound for Las Vegas with a bleeding forehead and a bloody bandage wrapped around his head. He said his doctor cleared him to fly and had paperwork confirming this, but flight attendants told him to deboard after seeing his bloody head.

According to an arrest report, Hernandez-Garnier was asked to clean up the blood and replace his bandages but told flight attendants he did not have any clean bandages.

Due to his bloody head, the airline staff asked Hernandez-Garnier and his wife to exit the flight because they were “concerned about his medical condition and body fluid contamination,” the report said.

However, the couple refused to leave the plane.

Following their refusal, airport police officers boarded the plane and made several attempts to get the couple to exit the aircraft. After a “brief moment of resisting,” the couple was eventually arrested, according to the arrest report.

After Hernandez-Garnier was released from jail on Tuesday night, NBC affiliate WTVJ spoke with the 27-year-old, who described what happened.

“I have a lot of pain. I have pain here and pain here on the head,” he said.

According to WTVJ, the man flew to Miami from Las Vegas to get a hair transplant and liposuction, but when they were on their flight home, concerned passengers alerted flight attendants about his bleeding.

Hernandez-Garnier said he was told, “You need to go out because somebody don’t like what you have on your head.”

The man showed WTVJ the doctor’s note which stated he was cleared to fly and return to work with no restrictions, but he said the flight attendant told him she didn’t care. That’s when the situation escalated.

“She tells me you either go out, or I’m gonna call the police. I said, call the police because that’s injustice. I paid my flight. I don’t have nothing illegal in my packet. Everything is fine,” Hernandez-Garnier said.

The man’s wife, Yusleidys Loyola, who also received cosmetic surgery in Miami, livestreamed the incident on TikTok as thousands watched.

“You guys know I’ve got… breast lift, arm lipo… I can’t even walk,” Loyola told WTVJ in Spanish. “Call 911… We are being discriminated against and abused.”

The couple then reflected on the moment airport officers attempted to get them off the plane.

“If you don’t get off, they’re going to grab you and they’re going to pull you off,” an officer told Hernandez.

The TikTok video continued to show the officers removing the couple from the plane. They were arrested for refusing to comply after multiple warnings, a report showed.

“This could have all been avoided if they would have just followed the commands or the request of the officers to vacate the aircraft,” Miami-Dade County police spokesperson Argemis Colomé told WTVJ.

The couple was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest. According to WTVJ, Loyola was expected to be released from jail Wednesday morning.

American Airlines released a statement to WFLA following the incident:

“During boarding of American Airlines flight 1858 on Aug. 19 with service from Miami (MIA) to Las Vegas (LAS), two customers became disruptive and were non-compliant with crewmember instructions. Law enforcement responded and removed both customers from the aircraft. We thank our crewmembers for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” a spokesperson said.

After an overnight delay, the flight finally departed on Tuesday morning, the airline said.

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