David has Tourette syndrome. That day, while waiting in line to board a flight to Iguazú Falls, an involuntary tic made him repeat, ‘I have a bomb, I have a bomb.’
He was carrying his Unique Disability Certificate and apostilled medical documentation explaining his condition. A woman standing in front of him heard the phrase and alerted airline staff. Minutes later, the Airport Security Police intervened, and both of them ended up at a police station in Aeroparque, showing documents that no one seemed willing to read carefully.
The plane departed without him. The airline offered to rebook him on a flight the next day, but David preferred not to risk repeating the scene. Before this episode, between 2020 and 2022, he had gone through his most difficult period, with self-injurious tics, until deep brain stimulation with electrodes gave him back some control over his body.
