Well I think that the airline's reputation would not have gone out of the window at all. There is no way I would risk the health and safety of over 100 pax for the publicity of the airline. If anything, I think keeping the lady and her son onboard the aircraft makes worse publicity than offloading them. pax were complaining for the whole flight asking us why we didn't offload her and if anything I think it would havesaved her a bit of embarrassment if she had been off loaded. To have pax making sickened faces infront of you is not pleasant in the slightest.
And this woman was apparently in the same condition when she left LGW. And the crew on the flight that took her out all asked their captain the same question, but he declined. All down to slots and getting home as quickly as possible I'm assuming.
The agent in Alicante said to me she wouldn't be suprised if twe turned back in 10 minutes time, because of the situation.