Working with a disability

[mhopset]

I am going to try and post this without an attitude. If I get nasty please forgive me.

This tradgey is absolutly horrible. I cried yesterday watching this on television. I really cried when I heard that the people in wheelchairs did not get out. It scares me to death for all the handicapped people working in buildings that put their life on the line daily just to be albel to go to work and support their families. People that are disaabled are expected to work. I believe that if you are able you should work. I guess what upsets me so is that. They make us fight so hard for SSI, Long term dissability through insurance companies, make us wait in lines with able bodied people. But we are not protected at work! There needs to be a way that we can get out of a building if need be. Thank God I am not in a wheelchair yet. But I am very very unstable when I walk and if someone was to even push me a little, I would fall. I just feel so sad, because I can just picture those people waiting for someone to help them, possibly knowing in the back of their minds what was going to happen to them.

What are we going to do? Who do we trun to?

Sorry for this post, but I just feel like I have to do something to protect us. But I don't know where to start.

God Bless the United States of America!!!!!!

 

[mamajoan]

God knows it is something we all fear, being trapped unable to get ourselves out of a dangerous situation. To be non-ambulatory, in a wheelchair must double that fear. I must say that my husband works for the Emergency Response team at his company.(in addition to his reg. duties) He said they are notified as soon as a non ambulatory person is hired so that they have a plan in place to assist that person in an emergency. They specifically do drills with those people in attendance and not always from easy to manage places. Whenever I saw mobility limited pts during my homecare visits I always made sure they could get out of the house in case of a fire. Many times people did not want to work on an escape plan. Yesterday, I remember hearing that the safety crew in the towers knew where the w/c bound people might be and were getting to them as quick as possible. I was amazed by the kindness and profound courage of everyone in those buildings. Mhopset, I too hope that some good comes out of this horrible disaster. I am sure we all are heartbroken today.

 

[SueM in MN]

That is especially chilling to think about. It was a thought that crossed my mind. My DD is never going to be working independently in a place like that, but she is dependent on other people to help her and she would not have gotten out in a situation like that. I hope this horrible tragedy does shed some light on the needs to get everyone out of high rise buildings in any kind of emergency.

Added thoughts: After I wrote this, I sat back and cried for 5 minutes. Yesterday, one of the first things my older DD (who is ambulatory) asked me was if the elevators could be used after the attack. I told her, no, since the top of the building was gone. She just said "Oh, all those people couldn't get out" and I knew which ones she meant.
I work in a 7th floor building, with many patients in wheelchairs and many on mechanical ventilators. Most of our disaster plans assume that we would have one set of elevators working out of the 3 sets we do have. If the disaster was a fire, with nothing else, we probably would. But terrorist attacks or tornados that take down a whole building are not something we think of, because we know if those things happened, there would be no way out for many of our patients. To think of having NO possibility of escape is inconceivable.

 

[teri]

It was the very first thing I thought about, the minute I heard about the first plane that had hit..

 

[Robin]

I know it was the first thing I thought of. There would be no way I could have gotten down all those stairs.

 

[autumnblue]

I worry about these things everyday. I use a wheelchair and work in the basement of a building. The Ironic thing is I'm the disability support coordinator at a small college and students with physical disabilities are essentially putting themselves at risk to come to get services. When I first arrived in this position my primary concern was evacuation. The public safety office told me to wait in my office in case of an emergency and that they would send someone down to get me. I'm sorry I don't want to wait in my office for someone to help. When I was in college and graduate school some schools told me to carry a cell phone and call public safety incase of emergency. I offered to give them my schedule so that they would know where I was and could come get me however they didn't want to they felt they would be putting themselves in danger for no reason if I did not go to class that day. It feels as though people are trying to make evacuation our problem and that isn't right. When my husband and I heard the stories about the people using wheelchairs who were essential trapped we cried together knowing that the same thing could easily happen to me. Evacuation polices have been my concern at my school for a long time but now I intend to push it through at whatever the cost. Life is scary enough with a disability and we need to lift this additional undue burden.


Autumn

 

[SueM in MN]

I have not seen the story, but someone in my office said she heard that 2 people in wheelchairs did get out. There were apparently evacuation chairs in the stairwells. At least one of the 2 people was carried down the stairs in an evacuation chair, apparently by co-workers. I don't know anything else, so I don't know if each person who used a wheelchair was aware that the evacuation chairs were available and where to find them. I don't know whether there was one on each floor or just scattered thru the buildings. At least there were some available.