Max
05-02-2003, 04:32 PM
Sketches show off a special place
Here are brief sketches of two people whose names are familiar to many of you.
The first goes like this:
When he was 5 and growing up in Kentucky, he came down with polio. The diagnosis by local physicians was not good. He would never walk again, they said.
His parents refused to accept that. They heard of a special place in California where the staff was engaged in innovative techniques for the management of polio. They took him there.
Over time and with the help of that institution, he developed the physical strength and self- determination that enabled him to make his way through life without the use of crutches.
In the annals of success stories, his is one of the best. He went on to earn a master's degree in government and hold several responsible positions in government. One was city manager of Long Beach.
Today, as you probably know, Jim Hankla serves as CEO for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Second sketch
The story of our second subject begins with him on a motorcycle, waiting for a traffic light to change.
Before it did, however, a car slammed into him, shattering his spinal cord. In his case, there was no doubt: He definitely would never walk again.
Still, what happened in the next six weeks almost defies comprehension. He was taken to that same special place noted above. There he underwent spinal surgery and was enrolled in a comprehensive program of rehabilitation. The program included instructions in the use of a wheelchair.
But as far as he was concerned, merely using a wheelchair was not enough. He worked every day, building his upper-body strength and developing self-confidence. He pushed himself harder than most of us ever do.
And in time, Jim Knaub was using a wheelchair faster than anyone on earth.
He became the wheelchair road- racing champion of the world, won five wheelchair victories in the Boston Marathon and another eight in the Long Beach Marathon. Today, he designs and manufactures wheelchairs. That special place
The common denominators in the two sketches are obvious. Both men were confronted by what seemed at first a near hopeless situation. Both overcame momentous obstacles with help from, as already noted, a very special place.
It was Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey.
On Tuesday, the institution that performed those near miracles, and many more like them it has 9,500 patients a year received a bit of a miracle itself. U.S. District Court Judge Florence- Marie Cooper issued a restraining order that prevents the county from closing Rancho unless it can provide Medi-Cal patients with comparable care elsewhere.
Last December, in a decision that still reverberates with shock waves, four of the five Los Angeles County supervisors voted to close the 115-year-old Rancho. Don Knabe, supervisor for the Long Beach area, was the dissenting vote.
Whatever budgetary arguments were given and are still being given, it was an unconscionable decision.
Of all the pleas I have heard for keeping Rancho open, the one that touched me most has been sitting in my computer for weeks, perhaps months. (Yes, I have been negligent in not writing about Rancho until now.) The person who wrote it, Lynne Rice, does not work for Rancho. Nor has she ever been a patient. She ... well, I'll let her speak for herself:
"I worked across the street from that facility for about two years and had the opportunity to see some of the people who are helped there. I also know two people who have gone there when there was nowhere else ... that had the expertise needed to help their specific problems ... . There simply (was) nowhere else that can give them the encouragement, knowledge and hands-on treatment that they need.'
Rice adds, "Closing that facility would be cruel and inhumane. And it makes me cry just to think about it. There just has to be a way to find the money to keep it open.'
Hopefully, there is a way. A study released Monday by the California Community Foundation suggested ways in which Rancho could be converted to a not-for-profit facility without strapping the county's finances. Playing God
In issuing the restraining order Tuesday, Judge Cooper noted that the county already was reducing Rancho services in anticipation of its closure. Doing so, she said, could cause "irreparable injury' to some patients. A hearing on an injunction to keep Rancho open is scheduled for Monday.
Some supporters of Rancho say people will die if it is closed. They may be right. But one supervisor, Mike Antonovich, has suggested, if obliquely, that keeping Rancho open could force the county into bankruptcy. If so, that would force the supervisors into the role of playing God when, in fact, just being supervisors may be more than they can handle.
"Life isn't about the rough spots,' says Hankla. "You have to find a way to work through those.' He says that on the Rancho Web site: www.rancho.org (http://www.rancho.org)
The supervisors and others need to work through this rough spot. Closing Rancho is not a viable option. Tom Hennessy's viewpoint appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He can be reached at (562) 499-1270 or by e-mail at Scribe17@aol.com
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http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~23168~1361143,00.html
Here are brief sketches of two people whose names are familiar to many of you.
The first goes like this:
When he was 5 and growing up in Kentucky, he came down with polio. The diagnosis by local physicians was not good. He would never walk again, they said.
His parents refused to accept that. They heard of a special place in California where the staff was engaged in innovative techniques for the management of polio. They took him there.
Over time and with the help of that institution, he developed the physical strength and self- determination that enabled him to make his way through life without the use of crutches.
In the annals of success stories, his is one of the best. He went on to earn a master's degree in government and hold several responsible positions in government. One was city manager of Long Beach.
Today, as you probably know, Jim Hankla serves as CEO for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority. Second sketch
The story of our second subject begins with him on a motorcycle, waiting for a traffic light to change.
Before it did, however, a car slammed into him, shattering his spinal cord. In his case, there was no doubt: He definitely would never walk again.
Still, what happened in the next six weeks almost defies comprehension. He was taken to that same special place noted above. There he underwent spinal surgery and was enrolled in a comprehensive program of rehabilitation. The program included instructions in the use of a wheelchair.
But as far as he was concerned, merely using a wheelchair was not enough. He worked every day, building his upper-body strength and developing self-confidence. He pushed himself harder than most of us ever do.
And in time, Jim Knaub was using a wheelchair faster than anyone on earth.
He became the wheelchair road- racing champion of the world, won five wheelchair victories in the Boston Marathon and another eight in the Long Beach Marathon. Today, he designs and manufactures wheelchairs. That special place
The common denominators in the two sketches are obvious. Both men were confronted by what seemed at first a near hopeless situation. Both overcame momentous obstacles with help from, as already noted, a very special place.
It was Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey.
On Tuesday, the institution that performed those near miracles, and many more like them it has 9,500 patients a year received a bit of a miracle itself. U.S. District Court Judge Florence- Marie Cooper issued a restraining order that prevents the county from closing Rancho unless it can provide Medi-Cal patients with comparable care elsewhere.
Last December, in a decision that still reverberates with shock waves, four of the five Los Angeles County supervisors voted to close the 115-year-old Rancho. Don Knabe, supervisor for the Long Beach area, was the dissenting vote.
Whatever budgetary arguments were given and are still being given, it was an unconscionable decision.
Of all the pleas I have heard for keeping Rancho open, the one that touched me most has been sitting in my computer for weeks, perhaps months. (Yes, I have been negligent in not writing about Rancho until now.) The person who wrote it, Lynne Rice, does not work for Rancho. Nor has she ever been a patient. She ... well, I'll let her speak for herself:
"I worked across the street from that facility for about two years and had the opportunity to see some of the people who are helped there. I also know two people who have gone there when there was nowhere else ... that had the expertise needed to help their specific problems ... . There simply (was) nowhere else that can give them the encouragement, knowledge and hands-on treatment that they need.'
Rice adds, "Closing that facility would be cruel and inhumane. And it makes me cry just to think about it. There just has to be a way to find the money to keep it open.'
Hopefully, there is a way. A study released Monday by the California Community Foundation suggested ways in which Rancho could be converted to a not-for-profit facility without strapping the county's finances. Playing God
In issuing the restraining order Tuesday, Judge Cooper noted that the county already was reducing Rancho services in anticipation of its closure. Doing so, she said, could cause "irreparable injury' to some patients. A hearing on an injunction to keep Rancho open is scheduled for Monday.
Some supporters of Rancho say people will die if it is closed. They may be right. But one supervisor, Mike Antonovich, has suggested, if obliquely, that keeping Rancho open could force the county into bankruptcy. If so, that would force the supervisors into the role of playing God when, in fact, just being supervisors may be more than they can handle.
"Life isn't about the rough spots,' says Hankla. "You have to find a way to work through those.' He says that on the Rancho Web site: www.rancho.org (http://www.rancho.org)
The supervisors and others need to work through this rough spot. Closing Rancho is not a viable option. Tom Hennessy's viewpoint appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He can be reached at (562) 499-1270 or by e-mail at Scribe17@aol.com
RETURN TO TOP
http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~23168~1361143,00.html