Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Aiden Cox's Story

Excerpt from Advance Centre for The Scotson Technique: (click for entire article)

Our son Aiden (now 8 years old) was born at just 24 weeks gestation. That’s 4 months early! Weighing only 1lb 9 oz – he was a twin and with such extreme prematurity, he was given only a 5% chance of survival. His twin sister Darcey sadly lived for only 2 hrs, but against all the odds, Aiden survived. At 4 days old, he suffered a massive bilateral, intracranial brain hemorrhage causing major brain damage that all the medical team thought would kill him, but he survived.

At three weeks old, he underwent major heart surgery, and at 3 months old, he needed laser eye surgery for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) to prevent him going completely blind. During his 6 month stay in hospital, he had over 25 blood transfusions, temporarily changing his blood group from A to O!! He developed chronic lung disease from being ventilated for so long, and he had numerous life-threatening infections.

27 Life-Changing iPhone and iPad Apps for People with Brain Injury

Excerpt from Brainline.org: (click for entire article)

Almost everyday, we hear of new smartphone applications (“apps”) developed for just about everything — from staying organized to finding pharmacies or restaurants while on the road. It’s hard to keep up.

The BrainLine team sifted through many resources to collect this list of iPhone, iTouch, and iPad apps that could be useful to people with a brain injury — and their families and caregivers. We will cover other smartphone platforms in the next installment of this series.

At N.L.R.B., Flurry of Acts for Unions as Chief Exits

Excerpt from The New York Times: (click for entire article)

The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday released a decision that would make it easier to unionize nursing home workers.

It is the latest in a flurry of moves favorable to unions that the board completed before the term of its chairwoman, Wilma B. Liebman, expired on Sunday. The board released two other pro-union decisions on Tuesday, both reversing decisions issued under President George W. Bush.

In the nursing home decision, the board ruled that the union, the United Steelworkers, could organize just the 53 certified nursing assistants at a nursing home in Mobile, Ala., as part of one bargaining unit, without including the home’s 33 other nonprofessional workers, including janitors, cooks and file clerks.

How Chase Ruined Lives of People Who Paid Off Their Mortgages

Excerpt from Naked Capitalism: (click for entire article)

Matt Taibbi, in giving a well deserved thrashing to the banking industry’s Tokyo Rose, aka New York Fed director Kathryn Wylde, said:

    [S]tealing is pretty much the worst thing that a bank can do — and these banks just finished the longest and most orgiastic campaign of stealing in the history of money.

Once you read the allegations in the cases included in this post, I strongly suspect you will agree that the “ruining lives” in the headline is not an exaggeration. And as important, these two cases, with very similar fact sets, also suggest that these abuses are not mere “mistakes”. These are clearly well established practices that Chase can’t be bothered to clean up, since cleaning them up costs money and letting them continue is more profitable.

Six disabled plane passengers left stranded at airport

Excerpt from Belfast Telegraph: (click for entire article)

Disabled plane passengers from Northern Ireland were left stranded at a Scottish airport at the weekend after equipment and assistance they needed to board a flight were not available in time for take-off.

The group of six, which included an 85-year old woman, several wheelchair-bound people and an adult with Down's syndrome, were told that the easyJet flight from Edinburgh to Belfast on Saturday night could not wait for them after a lifting machine to assist the passengers on board did not arrive in time for the plane doors closing.

Derrick McCourt from Ballymena is the husband of one of the disabled passengers.

What Price Life?

Excerpt from The Opinion Pages: (click for entire article)

So the big, bad storm huffed and puffed and didn’t blow all the houses in.

Reversing Katrina, on the sixth anniversary of that shameful episode in American history, the response to Irene was more powerful than Irene.

And that made some solipsistic Gothamites who missed their subways and restaurants grouchy. There is no greater abuse to New Yorkers than inconvenience.

“Historic” settlement for nursing home patients

Excerpt from Daily Herald: (click for entire article)

Medicaid-eligible people with disabilities who have been forced by the state to live in Cook County nursing homes will now have the option of living at home and receiving support services there.

The change comes as the result of a class-action discrimination lawsuit filed against the state of Illinois by Chicago-based Access Living, on behalf of about 20,000 people with physical disabilities or mental illness who now live in Cook County nursing homes.

Judge gives preliminary nod to disabilities deal

Excerpt from Chron.com: (click for entire article)

A federal judge on Tuesday gave her preliminary approval to a settlement that could eventually help thousands of disabled, low-income Illinois residents live more independently while saving the state money in the process.

State officials and advocates for the disabled lauded their agreement as a money-saving milestone after U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow gave it her initial backing and set a Dec. 20 hearing for fielding comments and objections.

If the judge gives the deal her final approval, it could affect not only 20,000 low-income people with physical disabilities and mental illnesses living in Cook County nursing homes, but also thousands more nursing home residents throughout Illinois.

Aging in the US: The Next Civil Rights Movement?

Excerpt from Temple University: (click for entire article)

On October 22, 2011, Temple Law School will host Aging in the US: The Next Civil Rights Movement? 

Is it possible, as Professor Nina Kohn suggests, that we all run the risk of “outliving” our civil rights?

Over the next thirty years, the senior population of the United States will increase dramatically. The number of individuals aged 65 and older will double, and the number of individuals aged 85 and older will nearly triple. By 2040, one out of every five Americans will be 65 or older.

Rate Your School District on Special Ed

Excerpt from Special Needs Truth '08: (click for entire article)

Sites like Special Ed Ratings are only as good as the ratings people provide. So search for your school district and share your thoughts to help other families. The site is at www.specialedratings.com.