Kentucky dialysis patient stranded hundreds of miles from home amid Southwest airline chaos

(CNN NEWSOURCE/WBTV) — Weather-related flight cancellations have created a travel nightmare for Americans over the past week.

Systemic issues and cascading failures at Southwest Airlines have made matters even worse for their passengers, and for a Kentucky dialysis patient stranded in North Carolina, being far away from her doctors is a dangerous predicament.

“I don’t care about my luggage. I don’t care if my luggage is in Chicago right now, I just want to go home. I love ’em, but I just want to go home,” said Jan Bray.

When Bray flew from Nashville to Charlotte to see her daughter and grandkids for the holidays, she expected to fly back by Dec. 27.

When her Southwest flight got canceled, she was worried about more than just a delayed return home

“As of tomorrow, I’m out of medicine. Being this far away from the doctors, it’s scary,” she said.

Bray has been on dialysis for the last year treating a kidney disease that she’s had her whole life.

Her daughter has been driving her every other day to a dialysis center in Indian Trail, but that only covers part of her treatment.

“Four medications I’m out of,” Bray said.

She says she takes about 28 pills a day to combat all the symptoms of her dialysis, and she’s running dangerously low on several of them.

“It’s not just about getting home, it’s about these help me live,” she said.

Thankfully she says her doctor was able to get an emergency order of medication that should get to her in time, but the mental strain of this situation has taken its toll.

“The anxiety level has become crazy,” she added.

Bray says she’s fortunate to be with family as she deals with her medical issues, but when she looks at the news all she can think about is the other people that won’t be as fortunate as she is.

“How are they getting to dialysis? How are they getting their insulin? For God’s sake, this is horrible.”

She currently has a flight scheduled for Saturday morning to return home, flying on Southwest for what she says will be the last time.

“Honestly, with me, I’ve always had good luck flying Southwest, but I’ll never fly southwest again. Never. Ever,” she said.

According to Flightradar24 and flightaware.com, Southwest has canceled more than half of its typical flight schedule.

As of late Wednesday, Southwest accounted for roughly 87 percent of all canceled flights in the U.S.