Posted on 11/05/2021 4:21:22 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
They did replace it.
Update: On August 27th, United Airlines finally agreed to replace Engracia’s chair. Together, we made United pay!
Through our collective efforts our story was picked up by ABC NEWS, the petition to demand United replace Engracia’s chair gained thousands of signatures, and we flooded United CEO Scott Kirby’s inbox with emails. Engracia even met with Senator Tammy Duckworth’s office who provided additional support.
Says Engracia, “It has been a difficult time. But one bright spot has been the incredible outpouring of support I received from the Hand in Hand community, Caring Across Generations, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and other allied organizations and individuals. Thank you to everyone who spoke out during this campaign.”...
Ironically, Engracia was returning on the flight from the #CareIsEssential rally and Day of Action in Washington D.C., where she and Christine Laing, known as June, a homecare worker who provides personal care for Engracia, both spoke about the need for more investment in homecare for disabled people and older adults. Both Engracia and June are active members of HAND IN HAND: THE DOMESTIC EMPLOYERS NETWORK, which brings together home care consumers and workers to fight for better care systems. ....
“We were treated so disrespectfully,” said June, an immigrant from Jamaica and a leader with SEIU 2015, the union for homecare workers. “We had to fight to get a glass of water after sitting there for hours. I kept thinking that they would never treat us this way if we were white.”
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I met a paraplegic woman at church who had a very nice wheelchair. She had one of those lightweight titanium wheelchairs and was able to put it in her car and drive a specially equipped car. Before, she had a regular hospital regulation style plain wheelchair that was bulky, heavy and hard for her to maneuver by herself but she sang the National Anthem at a sporting event and a medical equipment rep happened to be in the stands. He got in touch with her and his company donated that custom chair to her.
I wonder, how many of you who responded are disabled?
Maybe the chair was given to her through a foundation? Maybe because she had the special chair was the reason she could travel. Batteries for these chairs cost $100-300 and require two at a time. Repairing sometimes costs as much as replacing and she didn’t have the means. Red tape and paper work for the disabled is sometimes overwhelming. The stress of losing her personalized chair could have caused her health issues to worsen.
The disabled have so many things to deal with, I doubt if she had ever imagined what would happen to her only means of getting around that she would have even considered getting on the plane.
Looks to me like a 3 or 4 person carry to load. Especially in todays COVID environment the airlines do not have these people readily available, normal cargo loading I've seen is 2 or maybe 3. And how many of these cargo handlers have limits on what they can lift (per union or disabilities)?
Yes, as a DAV I feel for the disabled and believe in reasonable accommodation. However, it appears extraordinary measures were required here.
Ah.
CC
This story is bullshirt.
Airlines not responsible for her DEATH! R U kidding me?
She was responsible for her own care/well being.
Sure, the airline should pay her for the damage done to her wheelchair, but did they run over it with the plane?
Article: “The Department of Transportation estimates that airlines damage or destroy 29 mobility devices a day.”
29 PER DAY? C’mon man. Wipe my butt.
Her death?? Because the chair got broken?? and she had to fill out some paperwork? All she had to do was call an ambulance. She wasn't traveling with someone? That doesn't make sense.
“Then why did she use it?”
The generic chair?
Well, when it’s all you have you kind of have to.
Under normal wear and tear those expensive custom chairs last a lifetime, with occasional maintenance and adjustments. Since she had spinal injuries I’m sure it took many fittings to get the padding and angles of things right for her. Not cheap.
Given the choice, would you rather be semi mobile in a chair that hurts or laid up in a bed that hurts 24/7?
Why do you ask a hypothetical question?
Did this “impassioned activist” have no following? Does an activist have no knowledge of Go Fund Me?
This stinks of lawsuit lawyer pretrial “news release “.
what is wrong with you Cowgirl? Your’s is a good American’s comment, unlike so many of the others’.
“Makes no sense.”
Many posts on here make no sense Sacajaweau.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that they were responsible for her death. But they did contribute to her stress levels. One of many reasons I don’t fly. I would if urgent but not otherwise.
I think that the headline was misleading so it should have said she died *after* United destroyed her wheelchair, not when. (I at least found that confusing.)
But seriously—airline personnel are that reckless with things that are **clearly** extremely important to people? I mean, to their lives?
because she had a spinal cord injury and an leg amputated, you need a custom wheel chair
Agreed. Most people think that people who use devices that require electricity whether it’s for oxygen, heart pumps or even iron lungs (yes, they still exist) but doctors work with the patients to make sure they have generators, batteries etc. in case of an outage.
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