From ITN in the UK (April 16) (h/t to Media dis&dat) - Five-year-old amputee Ellie Challis, who lost her arms and legs to meningitis at 16 months of age, has become the youngest person ever to be given prosthetic blades.
From the Toronto [Ontario] Star, (April 15) - The parents of Annie Farlow, an infant with Down syndrome who died at an Toronto hospital in 2005, are pressing a claim before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal alleging that their daughter received inadequate care because the hospital withholds life-saving treatment from infants with disabilities. According to Barbara and Tim Farlow, Annie was admitted to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children with breathing problems but did not receive proper care because a “do not resuscitate” order was issued without their knowledge or consent.
From The Daily Mirror in the UK (April 15) - Paralympic gold-medalist Oscar Pistorius has told how a boating accident shattered his face and threatened his life - but will not stop him competing at next month's BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
From WCBS-TV in New York (April 15) - A group of New York City police officers have been accused of beating a man with a mental illness. The NYPD says the incident was a case of self-defense, but the man's family says it went beyond that.
From The Daily Mail in the UK (April 15) - An 18-year-old man with cerebral palsy claims he was refused entry to a pub and verbally abused when bouncers mistook his disability for drunkenness.
From WABC-TV in New York city (April 14) - A 59-year-old woman who uses a wheelchair is is being sued by a man she shot in the elbow after he allegedly tried to steal from her. Margaret Johnson was slapped with a lawsuit by Deron Johnson, who she shot with a .357 Magnum. She accused Johnson of choking her for her gold chains and trying to mug her as she rode her scooter.
From the Des Moines Register in Iowa (April 13) - Federal, state and county investigators are advancing their probe into Henry’s Turkey Service, the company that is suspected of exploiting and neglecting workers with intellectual disabilities in Atalissa, Iowa.
From Times Union in New York (April 12) - TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. - Eleven developmentally disabled adults were evacuated from a group home in Tupper Lake, NY, on April 9 when a frayed electrical wire on an air mattress started a fire in a bedroom, state officials said. No one was injured in the blaze, which came less than two weeks after four residents died in a fire at the Riverview group home in Wells.
From the New York Times (April 11) - In the midst of deepening and widespread budget deficits, more than 34 states have cut programs for vulnerable groups and people with disabilities, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
From the Cape Cod Times (April 10) - Local police are investigating the alleged abuse of a special needs student on a school bus, according to school district administrators and Mashpee parents. Video tapes recorded on a Cape Cod Collaborative school bus appear to show evidence that a bus driver and bus monitor verbally, and possibly physically, abused the unidentified student, who has social and emotional disabilities.
