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I'm waiting for the gardeners to leave so that I can put the dogs out on the porch, thus minimizing the amount of poop needing to be picked up when we get home this evening.
I'll know more about Mom then.
ADA became law in 1990. It's not perfect. But the law itself, granting the right to accommodation for disability has been around for over 30 years at this point.
This house is a decade old. When Mom, Dad, and Sis arrived the front steps had no railings. With two people over 85, a sister who might visit on a cane, and Sis being over 50 putting up railings seemed the right way to go.
A gurney can, just about make it up those brick steps with the railings up, but the EMTs would not be in optimal positions. Still, the steps are narrow enough that I'm not certain it would have worked with the railings down.
A downside to open plan houses is that they have to have halls that are wide enough for a gurney or a wheelchair, but no one is required to measure the space around the kitchen island, for instance. So, Mom had to be rolled onto a sling, which would probably have been the first step anyway, but then carried by the EMTs and her daughters through the entire first floor, through the front door, and down the front steps to the waiting gurney.
How the builder got away with putting in a front door that couldn't accommodate a gurney, I don't know. I know that the contractor was building for his own use which may be a loophole in the law. All I know is that it added some precious time to getting her onto the gurney when time is the one thing no one has with a stroke.
I'll know more about Mom then.
ADA became law in 1990. It's not perfect. But the law itself, granting the right to accommodation for disability has been around for over 30 years at this point.
This house is a decade old. When Mom, Dad, and Sis arrived the front steps had no railings. With two people over 85, a sister who might visit on a cane, and Sis being over 50 putting up railings seemed the right way to go.
A gurney can, just about make it up those brick steps with the railings up, but the EMTs would not be in optimal positions. Still, the steps are narrow enough that I'm not certain it would have worked with the railings down.
A downside to open plan houses is that they have to have halls that are wide enough for a gurney or a wheelchair, but no one is required to measure the space around the kitchen island, for instance. So, Mom had to be rolled onto a sling, which would probably have been the first step anyway, but then carried by the EMTs and her daughters through the entire first floor, through the front door, and down the front steps to the waiting gurney.
How the builder got away with putting in a front door that couldn't accommodate a gurney, I don't know. I know that the contractor was building for his own use which may be a loophole in the law. All I know is that it added some precious time to getting her onto the gurney when time is the one thing no one has with a stroke.
