Saturday, March 14, 2009

Salem quadriplegic sues Oregon in fight for independence


Clay Freeman seeks better pay for his round-the-clock caregivers


Salem, Oregon- It's 11 a.m. on a recent weekday morning, but Clay Freeman is still sound asleep. His chest rises and falls with perfectly timedpushes of air supplied by a ventilator near his nightstand. Twelve years ago, Freeman dived into a river and broke his neck. Now a quadriplegic, the 34-year-old is kept alive by 11 machines. Without 24-hour help from qualified caregivers to monitor those machines, he could easily suffocate. Normally, Freeman rises early. But his new night-shift caregiver hasn't been fully trained. She doesn't know how to move him from his wheelchair into his bed -- an hourlong process. And because of her inexperience, Freeman was too anxious to fall asleep.


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