A Van Ride From Hell

At the end of December 2014, Mary was having a hard time with hot flashes. Since she was unable to cool herself off by moving sheets or fanning herself, she wanted to get a patch. Her regular doctor wouldn’t prescribe it without seeing her, so Mary had to go in for an appointment. I met her and the caregiver at the doctor’s office, then saw her onto the van and headed back to work.

The wheelchair van was provided by the local ambulance company, so you would think they would be a little cautious when they see someone in a power wheelchair, with a caregiver, a face mask for a Trilogy, a heavy-duty neck brace and head supports that go across the top of the head and lock in place in front of the temples. But apparently, the driver didn’t lock her wheelchair down tight enough, so her chair and head got bounced around – enough that her head supports got knocked out of place. She ended up trying to yell at the driver and caregiver to stop, but they couldn’t hear her. Not only were her neck muscles completely gone by that point, but she had bone spurs in her neck, so if her neck brace hadn’t been tight enough or if the chair had been a little looser, that ride would literally have broken her neck.

When they stopped at the house, she had tears rolling down her face and explained what happened. The driver didn’t even apologize.

She ended up with a mild concussion and whiplash, stuck in bed for several days.

I was furious that I couldn’t protect her from so-called professionals. I called the ambulance company and filed a formal complaint. The driver was fired.

As you can imagine, this experience severely increased her anxiety about going anywhere after that. She only made one more trip in a wheelchair van, and that was with me sitting next to her to make sure everything was ok.