Two Links: Fat & Disability Discrimination US/AU
And the bias probably also had to do with his weight, given his lawyer's comment below:
If I read this article correctly, it seems as though the weight loss surgery--WHICH HE DIED FROM--was not only to resolve sleep apnea. Huneck, who was very emotionally hurt by the suspension, also wanted to change his body so that he, a grown man, would not be bullied, ridiculed, harassed, AND PUNISHED by his colleagues. Who can blame him for not wanting to be treated so poorly? But now he's dead... It's sad to me that these kinds of things undoubtedly take place all the time.
There is also a story out of Australia to report. Feminists With Disabilities for a way forward reports:
Maz Smyth was rolling along one day in her manual wheelchair, as one does, when her front wheel got caught in a pothole and snapped off. Understandably annoyed by this turn of events, she approached the Toowoomba Regional Council to ask them to fix the pothole and pay the costs associated with fixing her chair.
Ms. Smyth kept going to the council and they kept telling her to go away, until they finally told her she could file a report though nothing would ever come of it. "Perhaps it was your weight that caused the wheelchair to break," a council staff member then told her. She was rebuffed until the Mayor saw The Chronicle covering the story and getting a photoshoot outside City Hall. As s.e. smith aptly writes over at FWD:
h/t to sexgenderbody
Fat News Roundup | Surprise, I don't hate you!
Posted by withoutscene on July 20, 2010
Two great examples of how things that would likely be overlooked if someone were thin -- municipal employee nodding off, wheelchair caught in pothole -- become a big deal when someone is fat.
It's the hardest part of being fat, I think. You have no margin for error, at least with some people. You're not allowed to make human mistakes.
What about a CPAP machine? There could also be a story here regarding what the doctors did or did not do. Why operate when you can give the man a device to help him sleep? That would have helped fix the apnea problem. Right? Probably would have been cheaper, right?
Somehow I think that there is even more pathos to this story.
--Andy Jo--
Andy Jo,
Good point about the CPAP machine. Also, what about the drug Provigil which is prescribed for those with sleep apnea for whom the CPAP doesn't work or isn't completely effective? I'm not trying to promote a particular drug, but rather follow on your comments about the quality of care this individual received and the range of options he was (or wasn't) offered to deal with apnea.
Alyssa
Thank you for bringing this story to our attention. More and more, I hear weigh loss surgery horror stories. You don't hear them in the doctor's office, where they act like isn't no big deal, "... just a little procedure."
Rhi B.
a.k.a. AngryFatWoman