Government Grants For Accident Disabled Man With Motor Neuron Disease
by Larry
My father died in 1995. I relocated to Melbourne, FL for a job change in 1996. My mother also relocated from Baltimore, MD to Melbourne, FL with her 2nd husband in 1997. In 2000, I married my second wife who has three children: a 16-year-old daughter, a 22-year-old son and a 28-year-old daughter. I have several incurable medical conditions. At the age of 4, I began to limp from having psoriatic arthritis, a combination of psoriasis and arthritis. Both afflictions come and go. I currently suffer from both. On May 24, 1977, I was in a traffic accident. I had a concussion resulting in a 2-day coma with a broken jaw, three cracked ribs and a paralyzed left arm. I was told that there was no medical technology that could provide me with any motor function in my left arm. MRIs did not exist at that time and I was told that my left arm may or may not heal on its own. The driver that hit me had no available funds, so we settled out of court for the amount of money that his insurance company would pay. After two years of physical rehabilitation, I learned that my left arm would be permanently paralyzed. In addition, although I lost all motor function in my left arm, I still had functioning sensory nerves that would provide me with chronic pain for the rest of my life. With the realization that I had to learn to live the remainder of my life with the use of only one arm and constant pain, I became profoundly depressed. After five years of emotional and physical rehabilitation, I made a career choice based on my limited options. I learned to live with chronic pain without pain medication so that I could go back to college and become an electrical engineer. In 1985, I graduated George Washington University with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and started my first professional job. I continued to keep abreast of the latest medical technologies and underwent several extremely unpleasant electromyograms (EMGs) and nerve conduction studies (NCSs). I eventually found a neurosurgeon with the expertise that could potentially help me regain at least partial use of my left arm. She told me that my left arm could have been saved had she been contacted when the accident occurred, but that it was now too late. Although I was able to maintain my career, my emotional life did not fare as well and I was unable to maintain any meaningful relationships with women. My first marriage was not a happy one and ended in divorce after five years when I found out that she only married me for my money and that she was having an affair. Several years later, in 2000, I remarried. In the fall of 2006, I noticed that I was also losing significant muscle mass and strength in my RIGHT arm. I desperately tried to find a way to salvage the use of my only remaining arm. For several months, I suffered through more painful EMGs and NCSs to diagnose the new problem in my right arm. On November 9, 2006, after an MRI revealed that I had degenerative disk disease in my neck, I had surgery to fuse several vertebrae in my neck (C4-C6). Unfortunately, I did not regain any strength in my right arm. I then embarked upon a new search for a cure. After visiting several experts, I was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, another medical condition for which no cure exists. My prognosis was that my condition would never improve, but that it could worsen. Also, I was experiencing a lot of pain in my right arm. It was determined that I had a torn rotator cuff in my right arm and that surgery was not an option because I would not be able to keep my right arm immobilized long enough to heal due to the fact that I did not have the use of my left arm. I also began experiencing pain, cramping, and twitching throughout my body. This was due to the loss of nerve function caused by the motor neuron disease, which made my muscles weak enough so that even normal activity was putting a strain on the muscles throughout my body. Again I became profoundly depressed. I was given narcotics to manage the pain and benzodiazapines to manage the twitching and emotional stress. I was also experiencing cognitive dysfunction causing a rapid decrease in my job performance. On April 14, 2010, I had an emotional breakdown and haven't been the same since. Two weeks later, my wife moved out. I became unable to perform my job and went out on medical leave on May 5, 2010. After a month, I returned to my job and managed to function for about four months until I took medical leave again on October 15, 2010. I was put on long-term disability and I was terminated from my job on October 15 2011. I am now considered to be "totally and permanently disabled" and unable to perform any job. I am currently on long-term disability (LTD). I also receive SSDI but that is subtracted from my LTD benefits in accordance with the plan that was provided by my previous job. In all, I receive up to 60% of the income I had while I was working. I am also on Medicare now and my medical coverage is not as good as it used to be. Additionally, I must now pay others to perform many household chores that I can no longer perform due to the motor neuron disease. I would like to receive a grant or additional benefits to cover my additional expenses.
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