| Break-ins prompt new security system
The Bahamas Association for the Physically Disabled on Dolphin Drive will now have a defense against persons seeking to steal from the facility as they have just received a security system from Security Systems International Limited. After being robbed for the fifth time in six months about two weeks ago, the center contacted the security company, who's CEO Craig Cates, used the opportunity to "give something back." During the latest break-in a washing machine, bed linens and groceries were stolen. During previous robberies, specialized computers designed for the physically impaired, fax machines and wheelchairs were stolen. The centre has lost thousands of dollars in equipment and supplies. The donation of the security system has erased the fear that constantly clouded the facility's personnel, Administrator Linda Smith said yesterday during the official ceremony.
We owe it to injured soldiers to make their lives as normal as ...
Flying flags and putting ribbons on our cars to support our troops are good, appropriate things to do. But isnt it time we really do something to help them? More than 20,000 soldiers are coming home injured, some without either leg. Dont we owe it to them to make their lives as normal as possible? Many handicapped parking spaces are only normal-size spaces. The Americans with Disabilities Act states they must be 96 inches wide, to make room for wheelchairs and lifts. The diagonal lines between such spaces are not for shopping carts or cars, even if you have a handicapped placard. It is part of the space they need. Handicapped placards and license plates are only for the person whom a doctor specified on a form. If you are driving and are not that person, or if that person is not getting out of the vehicle, you are illegally parked.
2 men busted for fraud involving disabled drivers' licenses, bankbooks
YOKOHAMA -- Two men have been arrested for fraudulently obtaining a bankbook after they produced a driver's license of a mentally disabled person as an identity card, police said. Nobuhiro Hoshi, 36, and Tsuyoshi Samejima, 36, both from Yokohama, stand accused of fraud. Hoshi and Samejima allegedly obtained a driver's license in the name of a certain mentally handicapped person and produced it as an identity card to a bank and received his bankbook in April 2006. Kanagawa police suspect that four other people are involved in the scam. They pretended to be mentally handicapped people when they visited local government offices to obtain copies of the persons' address registration certificates. They passed exams to obtain drivers' licenses after producing the handicapped people's address certificate.
Furry therapy: dogs help hospital patients recover
George and Jean White are regulars in this fourth-floor room at Forsyth Medical Center, an area filled with wheelchairs, walkers and people in casts. But the first question they usually ask isn't about anybody's health. "Do you have a dog?" they ask. It doesn't matter if the answer is no. "It's about their life, and it sort of puts them back where they are in control," Jean White said. The Whites have two certified pet-therapy dogs, Molly and Kelly, golden retrievers who wear their own hospital ID tags as they trot through the long, institutional halls, their blond tails waving like fans. Glenda Hinton, 63, of Mount Airy was happy to see them on a recent afternoon. She is at the medical center recovering from a stroke. The stroke left her right hand curled and stiff, so she was worried that she would hurt Molly as her stiff hand raked gently across the dog's back.
Vancouver surgeon performs Canadian first
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - It was a Canadian first as far as surgeries go, and it was done in Vancouver. Doctors have implanted an experimental device into a quadraplegic man from Alberta, enabling him to breathe on his own for the first time in five years. Doctor John Yee with Vancouver General Hospital says the surgery can improve the quality of life for people confined to wheelchairs, "You have to remember these patients, they can't move their arms and legs; they are in motorized wheelchairs. They control those with small straws. So it's not an easy thing for, life at the best of times. This allows them some kind of freedom."
The procedure is still experimental and was paid for in part by the Rick Hansen Foundation. Yee hopes it will be approved by Health Canada.
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