A British holidaymaker’s life-saving medical equipment was left behind by Ryanair in the UK. Samantha Mitchell, 39, jetted off to Reggio Calabria in southern Italy from London Stansted for a two-week trip on July 26.The SEN teacher, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, has kidney failure and requires dialysis five times a week.She checked in her dialysis machine with the budget airline at the airport but was called back to the Ryanair desk and told the 43kg machine was too heavy to be taken on the flight.She then showed staff a medical waiver and claims a supervisor reassured her the medical equipment would be on the flight.But when the traveller arrived in Italy she soon discovered the machine had been left in London. Ryanair staff contacted Stansted and arranged for it to be transported to Samantha by the end of the following day. However, by this point Samantha claims she was unwell and ‘swelling up’ from toxins. Samantha Mitchell, pictured left with her mother Elaine Mitchell, suffers from kidney failure and requires dialysis five times a week The SEN teacher checked-in her dialysis machine with Ryanair at London Stansted before jetting off to Reggio Calabria in southern ItalyRyanair said the machine wasn’t loaded due to ‘an error made by the check-in agent’ but as soon as they were alerted ‘rushed’ it onto the next available flight.Samantha said: ‘I’ve got kidney failure so my kidneys are non-existent. They don’t work and I need dialysis five times a week.’Without it I would be very swollen and it would have become hard to breathe.’I would start being sick and the worst thing would be a heart attack as the toxins in my blood would be too much.’She recalled how ‘as soon as’ she made it through airport security, she was asked to return to the check-in desk to ‘speak to a supervisor about how heavy my machine was’.’It was 43kg, the supervisor said it was too heavy to go in the cabin with me but I wanted it in the hold. She said [that] was fine and it would go in the plane.”As soon as I landed, I had a phone call from my dad. He’d got an email to say they were refusing to put in the machine because it was too heavy.’I was literally fearing for my life. I was crying because I was panicking, my machine was all the way in London.’ She was later informed her machine was too heavy, but after she showed staff a medical waiver (pictured) was told it would be fine to take When the traveller arrived in Italy she soon discovered the machine had been left in LondonSamantha was due to undergo dialysis that evening. She said she had to call hospitals to try to arrange treatment before her machine arrived at 5pm the following day, by which point she had started feeling ill. She claimed she even stopped eating and drinking to prevent further toxins entering her bloodstream.Samantha said: ‘I’ve travelled with it [the machine] many times. I don’t think they realised how serious it was that they had done this, it was full on panic and anxiety [mode].’I had to stop drinking and eating because I didn’t want any more toxins in my body. I had started to swell up because I didn’t pass urine and felt a bit sickly.’It’s been a very traumatic experience, a horrible start to the holiday.’Samantha admitted the ordeal has put her off travelling in the future. Her mum, Elaine Mitchell, said it was a ‘life and death’ situation and that it was traumatic for the whole family.Elaine said: ‘This is not a case of clothes gone missing, this is a life-saving machine. It was traumatic for all of us.’We immediately rang the baggage team […]and they told us it’s a matter of health and safety. Ryanair said the machine wasn’t loaded due to ‘an error made by the check-in agent’ and managed to transport it to the passenger on the next available flight’We were saying ‘she’s got a waiver, it’s not a health and safety issue, it’s a life and death issue.’If Sam doesn’t have dialysis, she will be ill or worse. All [they] kept saying was that it was too heavy.’A Ryanair spokesman said: ‘Due to an error made by the check-in agent at Stansted Airport, this passenger’s medical device was not loaded on this flight from Stansted to Reggio Calabria (26 July).’As soon [as] this check-in agent’s error was realised, Ryanair rushed the device onto the next available flight to Reggio Calabria via Lamezia and arranged for a taxi to swiftly deliver the device directly to the passenger, which she received the following day (27 July).’A Stansted Airport spokesperson said it was an issue for Ryanair to comment on.This is the second time Samantha has had issues flying with her dialysis machine, after hitting headlines in 2018 for being denied boarding on a previous occasion due to the same weight issue.