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Engracia Figueroa, an amputee with a spinal twine damage, had her wheelchair damaged on a United Airways flight.
The following use of non-custom chairs led to sores, which acquired contaminated, which led to her demise.
“This loss ought to by no means have occurred,” mentioned Hand in Hand, a company Figueroa labored with.
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A lady died after sustaining accidents attributable to United Airways breaking her specialised wheelchair, in response to the advocacy group she labored with.Engracia Figueroa, 51, from LA, had her wheelchair destroyed after getting back from the Care Cannot Wait Rally in Washington DC in July 2021. She was representing Hand in Hand, a home rights group.Figueroa, a incapacity rights activist and president of Communities Actively Residing Unbiased and Free in downtown Los Angeles, lived with a spinal twine damage and left leg amputation after being hit by a Bay Space Fast Transit practice 30 years in the past.She needed to wait 5 hours, mentioned Hand in Hand, in a guide wheelchair within the airport when she found her custom-made chair was damaged, resulting in the event of a stress sore ensuing from her being unable to steadiness.
“I simply thought, the entire independence that I fought and strived for and efficiently survived for quickly to be 30 years by the minute, it is stripped away, and I used to be utterly disabled and traumatized, in addition to harm and exhausted,” she advised ABC7 Information.
A publish shared by Hand In Hand (@hihdomesticemployers)
Hand in Hand described Figueroa’s prolonged battle with United to get a alternative chair, which meant she had to make use of a loaner wheelchair offered by the airline that was not constructed for her physique.Finally, United Airways agreed to exchange Engracia’s chair valued at $30,000. Nevertheless, the months wherein she fought for the alternative took a toll on her physique, mentioned the Hand in Hand assertion.In July Figueroa launched an announcement saying “It was like my worst nightmare got here true…This has been probably the most horrific expertise of my 51 years residing.”
In an announcement saying her demise, Hand in Hand defined how the sore turned severely contaminated, with the an infection in the end reaching her hip bone and requiring two emergency surgical procedures. Figueroa died on October 31. It mentioned: “All of us at Hand in Hand are heartbroken, shocked, and enraged by Engracia’s useless demise. This loss ought to by no means have occurred. “Lives are at stake within the work that we do, and our present ableist and racist system proceed to fail our communities time and time once more.”1000’s of wheelchairs are damaged yearly by airways within the US. Incapacity advocate and wheelchair consumer Bri Scalesse raised the life-threatening repercussions with Insider in a current interview.
“I feel that is one thing that folks do not understand is our pores and skin is so reliant on the cushions that we sit on and the way in which that our our bodies match. Should you’re sitting on the improper factor for even 4 days, you are going to have a sore — and that may then actually threaten your life,” she mentioned.Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois raised the significance of valuing wheelchairs as an extension of the human physique — one thing Figueroa additionally lobbied for.”Wheelchairs must be handled like a human limb as a result of they’re my legs,” Duckworth advised Insider final month.A United spokesperson advised Insider: “We had been saddened to listen to about Ms. Figueroa’s passing and we provide our condolences to her household and mates.”
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