(no subject)

[stonebender]

OK here goes, remember you were warned! I've been disabled all my life and because of my disability I am dependent on two pieces of equipment that the United States health-care “system” so bloodlessly describes as durable medical equipment. The first is obviously my power wheelchair. I have said on several occasions and I mean it. If I'm in a burning building and they can't evacuate my wheelchair with me, I'm not going! My wheelchair is the most important thing in my life. Without it I can't really go anywhere or do much of anything. The second most important piece of equipment is my lift. The lift helps me transfer from my wheelchair to my bed and vice versa. I'm a pretty heavy fellow. It is not easy to lift me in and out of my wheelchair without a lift.

I received my first lift when I was around 12 years old. Before then people lifted me out of my wheelchair without the help of mechanical devices. Just before getting a lift, I had broken my arm when my dad dropped me. The doctor suggested that I was getting “too big” and a mechanical lift would be helpful. At that time a manual crank lift was recommended to me. You can see most of the models I’m talking about if you go to: Sunrise Medical you will need to go to the products area and scroll down to lifts. I liked the manual crank option better than the hydraulic because I had been hurt several times by malfunctioning hydraulic Hoyer lifts. So I ordered a crank lift from a company called Trans-Aid. I was very happy with this lift for the ten plus years I used it. It never needed any repair. It never gave me one bit of trouble in all the years I owned it.

When it came time to order another left, (a crack had developed along the main screw) I immediately ordered another manual crank type lift with an open C base. By that time, Trans-Aid had been bought by Hoyer, but I was still able get the model type that I wanted. Now, about 17 years later, I'm in the market for another lift.

I am very disappointed to find out that I can't get any type of crank lift. Evidently, Sunrise Medical bought Hoyer and has decided to only offer hydraulic lifts. I don't know why such a decision was made. I can't imagine it was a decision intended to benefit their customers. Mechanical lifts are, in my opinion, much more reliable. They are also much more portable. Every hydraulic lift I've ever dealt with is twice as heavy as my lift. Now it is impossible for me to buy any kind of crank left. I'm forced to buy a hydraulic lift and to add insult to injury I can't even get an open C base on the hydraulic lift (which according to the web site was an option at one time). The C base has been the discontinued as well.

I have written to the company. I have not heard from them yet, but I doubt anything will be done. One of the least talked about areas of health-care in this country is how durable medical equipment is dealt with. Normally, I would start organizing some kind of response, but the reality is there are just too many really important issues to be dealt with around health-care for the disabled (hell, for anyone, but durable medical impacts the disabled more) to respond to every issue.

So much of our lives are still inextricably related to medical systems which are under attack every day. Now, in order to pay for all of George Bush's wars (anybody remember Afghanistan?) State and local governments are hacking away at the support systems that service the most vulnerable. Gray Davis is talking about cutting durable medical coverage from Medi-Cal completely, along with psychiatric care, chiropractic care, adult dental care etc. He's also going to be cutting Social Security, rehabilitation, education and a host of social services.

Do we hear anything about these cuts? Not much and the president is certainly not talking about it. This is another reason that I hate this war. There is a full on assault on our health, security, civil rights and almost nobody is talking about it.

But what's bothering me the most right now is that I can't buy the piece of equipment that is vitally important to me, because a company decided they didn't want to sell it anymore.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I have run into this problem a number of times, but never on anything so essential.

[firecat]

A most excellent rant.