Outside America

 By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network

A woman that was recovering from a spinal cord injury in Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, UK had her teeth cleaned with hair remover instead of toothpaste. The woman was injured from a fall and was left a quadriplegic. A nurse that worked on the floor evidently grabbed the hair remover and proceeded to brush the patient’s teeth. After the patient complained to the nurse the error was discovered and a poison control unit was called as a precaution. The hospital does not have any idea how this happened, but has apologized to the patient and has started an internal investigation to understand how this happened. Fortunately the patient was not seriously injured because of the mistake.

It is inexcusable that a nurse somehow picked hair removal instead of toothpaste. Everyone know what a toothpaste tube looks like and what the graphics are. Either the nurse was overworked or didn’t care what she was doing. Either case is a dangerous employee in a hospital situation that needs to be removed. If the nurses at this hospital can’t get the easy, simple things right, what is happening to the poor folks in intensive care? State agencies need to look at the records of this hospital and make sure that they are not killing people because they don’t care or are just incompetent.

It is crucial that everyone have an advocate when they go into the hospital. There should always be someone there to make sure the patient is being cared for and that everything is working smoothly. Without a wife or family member there in the hospital to make them do their job, you can be guaranteed that anything but the job will be done. Bed pans don’t get emptied, spinal cord patients don’t get turned, people don’t get their medicine at the prescribed time (or at all). Having a loved one at the hospital can most often be the difference between recovery and being stuck in the hospital because of another infection. The nursing staff isn’t happy that they are forced to do the right thing, but at least the patients are getting basic care.

There has to be an oversight committee that makes sure that care is up to standards. Typically complaints are never addressed let alone reviewed. Most hospitals appear to operate without any fear that they will be held responsible for their actions. When they screw up, they just call their insurance company to pay everyone off and then they bury their mistakes. Regents of the hospital have to be held responsible for the behavior of employees of the hospital. Only then will real change happen. If those that help run a hospital can end up in prison for screw ups will they make sure that the doctors and nurses under them are doing the correct and ethical thing to do.

By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network

News.com.au reports that a man who was driving his wheelchair to a friend’s house was pulled over by police. Drivers had to swerve out of the way as the man drove his wheelchair next to the road. A passing police officer noticed the man slumped on his wheelchair and ran a breathalyzer. The man was found to have a blood alcohol level six times that of the legal limit. The police wrote the man up for drunk driving and the court is to decide if he will keep his wheelchair. Local law permits the police to impound a vehicle and then sell if, with the money going to the police department. While this is a disaster to those needing to drive to work, this man may end up being forced to live the rest of his life in his home if the state grabs his wheelchair.

Obviously this man did something pretty stupid but we are not sure that it should allow the court to sentence him to death in his home. This man cannot walk and has no way of going to the store without his wheelchair. By taking his chair, the only way he can get around, the man gets to live his remaining days staring at the ceiling from his bedroom as he slowly starves to death. Evidently no one in Queesnland except this man owns a wheelchair and as such they do not understand the ramifications of their actions. Everyone can walk so why do you really need a wheelchair? It is possible that the man could drag himself on his stomach back and forth to work and the store, but the police may not be happy with that either. Will he then be going too slow for traffic? Perhaps he will be a walking hazard and should be removed from the sidewalk.

Most countries do not have anything life the ADA for the disabled community, but it is obvious that something lie it needs to be put into law. Driving a wheelchair drunk should not bring a death warrant to someone. Maybe we should find out if this was a one time event or perhaps he needs help with a drinking problem. We doubt that drunk drivers in Queensland are shot dead by police officers to save time in courtrooms, so why would they do the same to someone that is disabled? We are not a subhuman life form and only ask to be treated the same as anyone else. But some of the public don’t see it that way. They would rather be allowed to hate the disabled and be allowed to do anything they want because they are bigots. Hopefully the courts will see that this man may need help for drinking, but does not deserve to be killed by the very state that is supposed to protect him.

By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network
T-5 incomplete injury

NorthernNews.ca reports that a 87 year old woman died in her wheelchair when she became wrapped up in her seat belt. The belt wrapped itself around the woman’s throat and she died of suffocation. O’Connor Gate, the assistance residence the woman lived in could not understand what happened. Supposedly all restraints are checked every two hours to make sure the patients are not in danger. The police are waiting until the coroner comes out with his findings to decide whether criminal proceedings are to be brought on O’Connor Gate and their employees. All employees and managers have been asked not to discuss the case with anyone and not to hold any meetings until further notice.

At the very least it is our opinion that O’Connor Gate is responsible for negligence in their duties to make sure their patients are safe. It should be impossible for patients to get themselves in a situation like this woman without a nurse or orderly stumbling across the predicament. Instead, we believe that this woman was abandoned after being tied down because the staff didn’t want to do their job and take care of her. She tried to get out of the restraints and ended up dead because no one was there to help her. The article did not go into how the patients were tracked and whether there were cameras that are monitored. However, if this woman was struggling this hard against the straps then it could be assumed that she was calling for help at the same time. As someone who has spent months in the hospital, I can tell you that if someone is in trouble they start yelling and screaming for help.

If the woman was yelling for help then it is truly a sad day for the family who was expecting that the employees of O’Connor Gate to take care of their family member. We shouldn’t have to constantly sit in their room and make sure they do their job so something like this does not happen. It is hoped that the police investigation finds the person or persons responsible for this death and take full legal action. All assisted living centers need to know that they will be held to high standards and if they tie down a person and leave them to die they will have to face the consequences. This does not matter if this is an "accident" or not, this woman should have been properly monitored and it appears that she was not. Perhaps O’Connor Gate should be shut down and the patients moved to other places until it can be determined that everyone there is safe and well cared for?

By Greg George CEO Spinal Cord Resources Network T-5 incomplete injury The Weston Mercury reports that a 38 year old mother of three with osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalopathy (ME) and rheumatoid arthritis was tossed off the train because she was "too heavy". The woman is confined to a powered wheelchair and uses the train weekly to see her children. Since she cannot drive this is her only lifeline to the rest of her family. She has been traveling on this train once or twice a week since last August and has never had a problem until now. The conductor announced that the woman was overt the weight limit for the train but she says that is not true. T he train company was all too eager to sell her a ticket but isn’t interested in helping a disabled woman see her children. This is an ongoing problem in th UK and Europe that disabled people can be marked as being a "health risk" or in this case "too heavy" and that is the end of their travel plans. We have several reports on "Outside America" that showcased what the disabled people had to go through just to travel. Why do the disabled have to stay at the airport or train station while all the able bodied get to travel without incident? Fortunately all of our reported victims were able to get other transportation but that is not the point. The laws in the EU should be amended so that companies cannot abuse disabled people and leave them at he tarmac because they do not want a disabled person on their plane or bus or train. It should be illegal to do this and the victims should be able to sue for monetary damages. It is depressing to sit there and watch your plane take off and you are still stuck at the airport because the pilot didn’t want you on the plane. We deserve the same rights as everyone else and only ask to be able to do what everyone else can. The disabled don’t pretend to be a super person that has more rights then anyone else. It is sad that the train company had no compassion for this disabled woman that used their train around 70 times before they decided to violate her civil rights. Fortunately the press got involved and the train company said that were sorry for what happened but didn’t have any idea why she was not allowed on the train. So will the company take action against the employee that did this? Is this behavior unreasonable, but we do it anyways because it is fun? The disabled are an easy target because many times we cannot defend ourselves and typically don’t have the money to hire a lawyer to sue the company. Society has to get mad enough that they say enough is enough and that this behavior will no longer be tolerated. Until everyone does that we will have bigots and disabled haters refusing to help us to get around like everyone else can. 

By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network
T-5 incomplete injury

The Guardian reports on a new pain killer that is being developed from the venom of cone snails. The Conoco Project has already found a powerful local anesthetic. Several labs around the world are working to create a drug from the proteins of the venom that produce the pain killing action. Another drug that is being perfected is ziconotide, another part of the venom of cone snails that is 1000 times more powerful then morphine but is not addictive. Scientists believe that many new types of pain killers and anti-microbial agents can be created from this venom is because of the large number of species of cone snails. Each species uses a different group of proteins to make up their venom so work is now being done to work out what all these proteins are capable of doing. THe drugs coming out of this little snail may allow us to create entire new families of drugs to help people with chronic pain as well as treatments of diseases.

Scientists wondered if the venom used by sea creatures could be broken down and used as drugs. But up to this point the equipment and computers had not been powerful enough to break the codes. Things are now dramatically different where the entire genome of a creature can be developed in a few short years allowing scientists an internal view of how these mechanisms work. Once the part of the DNA that creates a protein is known, it can be used to create a synthetic version which is the basis of a drug. They can use chemicals rather then requiring that thousands of snails to be harvested on an annual basis. Plus, by using synthetic versions of the active ingredient, it can be kept sterile to be used in surgical procedures or injected directly in the body without the worry of infection.

This is fantastic news for the British and American scientists that are working on new drugs based on this snail. We have reported on other drugs coming down the line that also have tremendous promise, but none have the shear number of proteins to test that these sea snails do. We are very lucky that each species uses a different group of proteins to create venom so we have the possibility of creating new drugs from each one we find. THe users of opioids will be very interested in following the clinical trials so we know when the new drugs will be made available. People that have had chronic pain over a long time have built up either addictions that forced them to change medications. Others have built up an immunity to certain pain killers so that the patient requires more and more to get the same level of pain relief. Eventually the level can become toxic and the patient must be moved to a different pain killer. That can be a problem if the patients has already gone through the best we already have in inventory. With these drugs they can take a small amount, get good pain relief and know that they will not build up a resistance to the medication.

By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network
T-5 incomplete injury

The CBC reports that Toronto taxi drivers overcharge any time there is a disabled person who enters the cab. As an example, a disabled man called for a taxi to come to his house and drive 3 kilometers (about 1.5 miles). Upon seeing that the rider was disabled, the taxi driver said that there was a minimum $30 charge to pick him up. The man asked the taxi driver why it costs him $30 for a 10 minute ride, but the driver was not in a talking mood.

According to local laws, any taxi drivers that can take a wheelchair must charge the same rates as any other cab. It is illegal to overcharge or gouge disabled riders merely because there are disabled. Councilman Howard Moscoe says that he was not surprised at the allegations, but no one came to him with proof. This was blown out of the water then the CBC called the largest cab companies several times and was told that disabled riders always are overcharged. The story never went into why the CBC could make phone calls to prove the allegations but the Councilman could not. Is the Councilman’s phone broken? It is not difficult to prove what the cabs are doing, it isn’t like there needs to be a police investigation.

The Councilman also said hat he would like to talk to drivers and find out why they are charging so much more money to disabled riders. Talk to them? How about nailing them with illegal practices and take their driver’s license away? Here is a situation where the city clearly knows that the law is being broken, yet no one is willing to enforce the law. It is the city’s responsibility to watch over those that need help and to enforce all the laws of the land, not just the few they want to this week. It looks like the city councilmen need to be removed from office and taxi drivers need to be arrested, hit with fines, and have their licenses revoked. Then have undercover cops that pretend they are disabled to make sure the cabs are not breaking the law. We guarantee the cabs would stop doing this if they knew the consequences would be substantial and expensive.

The disabled man in the story only wants the playing field of payments for cabs to be the same for everyone. Perhaps a lawyer needs to get involved so that the man can sue the cab companies, cab drivers, and city officials for ignoring the law and victimizing  someone that is already a victim - they are disabled. It is disgusting that anyone would take advantage of a disabled person, but there are plenty of scum-bags running around. We can help by letting people know what is going on and what to watch out for so they do not become victims of these miscreants.

Yahoo news has a story about a card that allows caregivers to travel for free when they are with the person they are helping. The New South Wales government came up with the card to help defray the cost of using public transportation to the disabled. Up to this point the disabled person had to purchase two tickets to go somewhere, one for themselves and one for their caregiver. Now the disabled can use public transportation and cut their travel expense in half if a caregiver is with them.

We applaud the New South Wales government for reducing the cost of transportation for the disabled. It is difficult to  pay for all the attendants that you need to stay alive and pay for the caregiver as well. To help the disabled even more, why not allow the disabled to use public transportation for free as well. The vast majority of people using buses and subways are able bodies, so it would not adversely effect the transportation groups. However, it would be a great help to those living at or below the poverty line that need to get to doctor visits and rehab centers.

By Greg George
CEO Spinal Cord Resources Network
T-5 incomplete

Canada.com is reporting that GlobeSpan AIrways must allow a man to travel with his powered wheelchair. Flyglobespan is an airline that opened up transportation from Canada to Ireland. A disabled man tried to purchase a ticket but the airline said that his wheelchair would not fit in the cargo hold and he represented a danger to the aircraft. After booking his flight on another airline, the man sued the airline and said that his civil rights were violated. During the case, the airline never sent engineering documents to back up their claim that the wheelchair would not fit in the cargo hold and was a danger to the aircraft. The court found that the wheelchair would fit easily into the cargo hold and was able to be safely tied down during travel.

This is an ongoing problem with air travel for the disabled. Airlines do not want to be bothered with transporting someone in a wheelchair. Supposedly it is too hard to transfer the person to a seat and to put their wheelchair into the hold. If the front seats are used, it is trivial to transfer a disabled person from a wheelchair to the seat. There is plenty of room and they usually do not require any other special hardware. Wheelchairs have been transported by air for years so it is confusing as to why all of a sudden the cargo hold is too small. This is just another attempt at the airlines discriminating against a group of people that they do not want to deal with. It is a shame that c0mpanies like Flyglobespan look at the disabled as subhuman travelers that have no rights.

It does not take much work to see that laws like the ADA need to be passed. Companies will go out of their way to discriminate against the disabled because they don’t want to put the extra effort to help. They believe that the disabled cost them money so they come up with the most obtuse and insane rules imaginable to make it impossible for the disabled to fly. The laws must be adjusted so that the disabled can sue for damages when they are discriminated against. It is not enough to force companies to do the right thing, they need to be properly punished for performing these despicable acts. If the airlines had to pay out $100,000 to the disabled person every time they pulled stunts like the one in this story, the CFOs wouldn’t let them do it. The only thing that makes companies learn is when they are hit hard in the pocket book. It is sad that we have to keep dragging these companies into court because they do not want to do the right thing.

Everyone needs to understand that the disabled are people too and the law says we are to be treated witg the same respect as everyone else. Accomodations must be put into place so we can move around and live our lives. It is rediculous to think that the disabled should be locked in their homes beause the few small minded idiots don’t want to see them. It is sad that there are adult bullies, but the rest of the country needs to fight against them so they know that their behavior is not acceptable.

By Greg George
CEO
Spinal Cord Resources Network
T-5 incomplete

The BBC has a story about a disabled woman in a wheelchair and her attempts to get taxi transportation in London. The Department of Transportation knows there are issues but none of the disabled laws have been implemented. The article does not go into why there is no enforcement of the law but allowing transportation services to discriminate based on disability is wrong. In this one situation nine successive taxi drivers drove right past this woman because she is in a wheelchair. Fortunately the weather is good but what shape would this woman be in if it was extremely cold or she was stuck in driving rain. Many times the disabled cannot drive and depend on services like taxis to get around.

All of the taxi drivers in London are self employed. This means that they purchase their own cars and also have to purchase any accessibility equipment. It appears that most drivers don’t want to (or cannot afford) purchase a ramp and larger vehicle to hold a wheelchair. This can easily be solved by having the government pay for the installation of ramps in all taxis. To make sure all drivers follow this law make it impossible to get their license without outfitting their vehicle. There should also be a toll free number to call if a taxi driver passes you up when their light shows they are working and available. While this is being implemented all drivers should be trained to help the disabled get into a taxi and put a wheelchair into the trunk. If my 4′10″ 90 pound wife can do this then taxi drivers certainly can.

It is ridiculous that regulations have been in place for over ten years but no one is enforcing them. According to the article there are 380 local authorities and they all have different policies. So the taxi manufacturers have no idea what to do and the drivers know that they don’t have to pick up a disabled person. They can zoom by and no police agency will track them down and give them a ticket for abandoning a disabled person on the road. Perhaps some of the government officials should be forced to use a wheelchair for a week and try to get around town in London. Once they live the problems we face every day we hope they will go into action and fix the problem. In the mean time if you are in a wheelchair in London be prepared to watch a lot of taxis zoom by before one decides to pick you up.