... THE DISABILITY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
MICHIGAN ADAPT: NOT SO FAST THERE PARTNER...


MI ADAPT has successfully beaten back the system for a young quad named Sam. Sam was in a "rehab" hospital where he was allegedly learning how to be a quad, but where in reality he was getting little useful training. When his insurance ran out, the "rehab" hospital decided to dump him in a nursing home. Both hospital and nursing home were owned by the same parent company. The hospital discharge planners and social workers had put little to no effort into finding any options for Sam to live out in the community. Luckily Sam had met Dusty Hogue so he called on MI ADAPT to come to the rescue.

MI ADAPT folks rallied in protest at his hospital room, literally surrounding his bed with their chairs and bodies, and in the process getting tons of media coverage of the hospital's wish to dump Sam. While the media coverage raised public awareness and put a temporary damper on the hospital's plans, the hospital remained determined to dump Sam, thinking MI ADAPT would go away. But no such luck.

Finding a lawyer willing to file for an injunction (court order to temporarily stop the hospital) for free, they swung into phase two of their plan. The only problem, they had three days to prepare the court case. Frantically they called across the USA for facts and figures to support their argument that going to the nursing home would be harmful to Sam. Locally information was found that showed this particular nursing home had a long and sordid history of abuses and similar problems. In addition, folks went into overdrive to find attendant services and an accessible, affordable place for Sam to live.

Though the hospital sneered at the injunction up to the 11th hour, when they all finally showed up outside the courtroom they offered to settle out of court. They agreed to give ADAPT more time to find a place for Sam to move into, and ADAPT (already hot on the trail of several decent options) agreed.

Sam is out in his new place, and hopefully will be joining us in Atlanta. Without the efforts of ADAPT, especially Dusty, Linda Shroyer and Verna Spayth, we can imagine only too easily what Sam's fate might have been.


For more information you can contact
MI ADAPT
c\o Verna Spayth
2765 Adrienne DR
Ann Arbor, MI
313/747-9365
- or -
Dusty Hogue and Linda Shroyer
810/631-4347