HANDLING AN EMERGENCY.

Posted by Rotciv at 3:00 am, July 26th 2010.
You know it is an emergency when the companion, runs out of the garage door telling you your wife wants you to come back in the house immediately. So, I turn off the car and walk back into the house to find my wife stuck in the doorway to our bedroom, the power chair won't move. The joy stick control is dead, no lights no nothing.
So, I have to get down on the floor, reach underneath the footrest to disengage the drive wheels. Believe me when I tell you the power chair will not move with the drive wheels engaged. Now I have to pull the power chair with Claudia in it (weight about 450lbs combined) out into the living room area where we have some room to work.
We try the usual tricks, such as plugging in the charger to see if that will reboot the computer control, it does not! The control is dead, dead, dead.
To digress for a moment, back a couple of years ago, my right hip was so bad that I couldn't walk anymore. So in co-operation with my orthopedic surgeon I applied for and recieved a power chair, paid for by medicare and my supplemental insurance. At the very same time we had been looking for a power chair for Claudia. Claudia's power chair had to be paid for out of our own pocket, so with some help from one of our children we ordered a duplicate power chair for Claudia.
Both of the chairs arrived on the same day, and as I was saying they are identical.
Back to the emergency, I went out to the garage and drove the twin chair into the house. We then were able to transfer Claudia from the non-operational chair to the operational chair. With the operational chair, Claudia was now able to go to the bathroom. I moved the non working chair over to one corner in the living room and was able to go out to my appointment.
Now! the story doesn't end here. The working chair's batteries were pretty much at the end of their useful life, the batteries wouldm't hold a charge. So, once Claudia was lying down, I had to dismantle both chairs, swap the batteries from one chair to the other, then reassemble both of the chairs. Did I mention that the seats alone weigh about 50 pounds! Each battery weighs another 25-30 lbs.  So swapping the batteries is not an easy task.
Since the joystick control had arced and sparked when it blew out, I decided to call the Rascal Scooter Company, from which we bought the chairs, and find out how much it would cost to repair or replace the controller. Well! some good luck for a change, Dan(the customer service guy) said that he thinks Medicare will pay for replacing the controller, so we wouldn't have to pay anything out of pocket. Since my wheelchair was authorized and paid for by medicare and the chairs were twins, I figured it was a win-win situation for us.
God Bless it we could certainly use the good news.
Victor Winebrenner
 

Tagged as: chair, claudia, power, batteries, emergency, medicare

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"(C) Copyright by Victor Winebrenner"

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

I have been reviewing the National Health Bill H.R.3200 and I find that it is way too long to read and understand.

MY OPINION is that we need and must have a National Health Plan.

Why, well my wife has had no health plan of any kind for over nine years. Nine years ago is when I had to retire with congestive heart failure. In my case I was able to apply for and receive 100% disability from Social Security. I was 64 at the time. Prior to nine years ago, Claudia was covered under my companies health plan.

The company I worked for had a short term disability plan and then a long term disability plan. Under those plans I continued to be covered under the companies health plan. At age 65 I automatically was covered by Medicare.

I took the precaution of buying a supplemental health plan, which has paid off big time, since I have been in the hospital at least 18 times in 9 years. I think it has been more than that, anyway, virtually all of my medical bills have been covered. Up until two years ago I had to pay for all of my prescriptions.

Now Medicare part D screws me over. Medicare part D is the so called prescription drug program administered by Medicare. But the law was written by the Drug Companies, not by our Senators or Congressman. So the drug companies are making money hand over fist, while us common folks continue to get screwed. I won't go into the over 50 different Part D Prescription PLans that are available in Georgia alone. Trying to pick one that will cover all of your medicines is difficult.

Anyway, back to Claudia and no Health Insurance. We could not buy health insurance for her at any price because of her pre-existing condition. That condition being post-polio syndrome. It is incurable and degenerative. There is no cure and there is no research being done to find a cure as it is terminal, period.

In the past two years Claudia has had to go into the hospital twice for emergency surgery. The first time was in 2006 for pancreatic disease and gall stones. She damn near died from it.

The second time was in March of this year for a broken leg, her femur was snapped in two and required a metal rod be inserted in order to repair it.

In both cases we had no money to pay the hospital and doctor bills. Each time the bills exceeded $70,000. We had applied to Medicaid several times and each time were told I receive too much money from Social Security, so tough luck. With the money that both I and my wife recieve we are not able to pay all of our bills each month, so go figure.

Here are some questions that I think are the Right Questions:

1. DO WE NEED A NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN?

2. SHOULD THERE BE A GOVERNMENT SPONSORED PLAN?

3. CAN WE AFFORD NOT TO HAVE A NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN?

4. IS FREE SPEECH GETTING IN THE WAY OF DEVELOPING A HEALTH PLAN?


gahillbilly

People we need a National Health Plan.

Your questions and comments are welcome.

Claudia's Having a Very Bad Week.

Hello folks,

Well folks, this past week has been an extreme trial for Claudia and I. Last Thursday Claudia got dumped face first on the concrete in our driveway. She was tooling her power chair down the driveway and she hit a very steep area that she normally avoids and the chair tilted forward and slammed her down face first. Her leg caught between the wheel and the foot rest and broke her right leg. In addition she was bleeding from her forehead which later required two stitches.

I called 911 right away and the paramedics arrived to care for her and take her to the hospital.

The next day the doctor operated on her and had to go in through the knee, drill a hole in the femur and stick a rod up through the middle of the bone. All in all she has been very miserable.



I was able to bring her home today, March 24, 2009. When I came to work I left her resting fairly comfortably.



The biggest problem with all of this medical stuff is the fact that we have no medical insurance and haven't been able to get medicare or medicaid. Not for lack of trying. Hopefully, this time the Patient Advocate from the hospital will be able to have better luck getting her approved for medicare or medicaid or both. I certainly hope so.

When we add this problem to the fact that Claudia lost the little business she had back in October of 2008, our income has suffered as a result of that loss.



If it sounds like I am rambling a bit here, it is probably because I am so upset. Claudia and I will be married 38 years this year.

really worried,
the ga hillbilly