Nick Dupree and his partner, Alejandra Ospina, survived Sandy with the help of Facebook friends.

Crip Buzz December 2012


The Best of Disability Blogs and Banter

Six Insane Stereotypes That Movies Can’t Seem to Get Over

2. Anything (Including Death) is Better Than Being Disabled
In movie universes, there are two ways to get disabled: Either you get a sweet superpower out of it, like Daredevil, or it makes you absolutely miserable for the rest of your life. One of the most infamous examples is Million Dollar Baby, which ends with the protagonist becoming a quadriplegic and Clint Eastwood euthanizing her because, you know, what’s the point of living like that? Never mind the fact that millions of people do just that every day.

But this also manifests in subtler ways: Take the character of John Locke in Lost, a paraplegic who would rather stay on a remote island filled with smoke monsters, displaced fauna and all sorts of crazy bullshit because he can walk there, which many actual paraplegics found offensive.

Even in Avatar, real paraplegics thought that Sam Worthington’s character was making way too much effort transferring from his chair, but that’s the way we’re used to seeing it in movies. It’s a vicious cycle, and it isn’t going to stop until either Hollywood wises up or people with disabilities stop living happy, fulfilling lives.
— J.F. Sargent, www.cracked.com

Unconventional Aid: Helping Nick Dupree, Social Networking Style
[During Hurricane Sandy, people with disabilities used social media to help others with disabilities trapped in the hardest-hit areas. Here is a snippet of the effort to assist Nick Dupree, a vent user from New York City, and his partner Alejandra Ospina.]

Nick Dupree and his partner, Alejandra Ospina, survived Sandy with the help of Facebook friends.
Nick Dupree and his partner, Alejandra Ospina, survived Sandy with the help of Facebook friends.

I checked Nick’s Facebook wall and saw a post from earlier in the day where Alejandra said that due to early shut down of transit it was impossible for any nurses to come provide care for Nick, who has been dependent on a ventilator since 1993. As I read through wall posts, others were saying that Nick and Alejandra had lost power. This wasn’t good at all.

[After unsuccessfully trying to secure help from groups like FEMA and the MDA] I didn’t know what else to do, so I posted to my Facebook wall. Immediately, my friend Sandi Yu, a local Red Cross employee responded, worried. Sandi and I decided it was time to take things into our own hands. The easiest way to get what we needed would be to bring them from out of state. So Sandi came to get me.

We had 14 gallons of water, heavy car batteries, and tons of other stuff that needed to be brought up 12 flights of stairs. Of course, since I’m in a wheelchair, I couldn’t assist. Sandi got everything situated, and when we left, Nick was successfully running his vent off a car battery — which will last approximately 12 hours, rather then the three hours the vent batteries last.
— Crystal Evans-Pradhan, littlefreeradical.com

PHOTO:
Dupree.jpg -Nick Dupree and his partner, Alejandra Ospina, survived Sandy with the help of Facebook friends.

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