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EDITOR: The telephone rings at 1:05 a.m., Sept. 4, on the eve of Labor Day. The person says he calling from Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital and asks if I am the parent of Timothy Parsons. Yes. He will call again in several minutes after conferring with doctors.
Thankfully, he called back in 10 minutes with a brief description of our youngest son’S prognosis: He fell and suffered head trauma, specifically a fractured skull, but was stable in the trauma ICU. At 1:30, one of Tim’s good friends called to report that she and other friends were with Tim at the ICU. A few minutes later there was another call from another of Tim’s friends who is also an ER doctor at another hospital. Matt gave us additional information and suggested leaving for Portland after getting some rest.
I checked flight schedules to learn that the first flight from Sacramento left at 6:30 a.m. Sandra reminded me that she probably didn’t have the required paperwork in order to fly with an oxygen concentrator. We tried to get a few hours of sleep before packing the car for the road trip. It would take 11 and a half hours to get to the trauma unit at OHSU. You can imagine a mother’s stress over that period of time. It’s morning in America.
I contacted our congressperson’s office last year about this issue of ADA access to airlines being entirely determined by individual carriers. Even though the Americans with Disabilities Act specifies public transportation responsibilities, our congressperson said it is entirely up to each carrier to make its own regulations. It’s morning in America.
DICK PARSONS
El Dorado Hills
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DarrinSeptember 29, 2012 - 6:28 am
Here is a tip, when you first get on the oxygen start the paperwork to allow you to fly when needed. Even if you do not have plans to do so immediately. You will be prepared for these types of emergencies when they arise. Sorry you had this scare. Friends of ours just had the one year anniversary of an experience that sounds similar to yours. I hope yours turns out as well as theirs.