Wheelchair User Has An Urgent Message for Drivers

Patty Thorsen just wants to exercise, go to the library and volunteer in her community.  But every time she leaves home, Thorsen feels like she's taking her life in her hands.  She asked 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS to come along for the ride.

Thorsen may be headed forward, but when we watched her crossing Seventh Street in Saint Paul, her eyes were aimed directly at the cars approaching from her right.

"I try to make eye contact, talk to them," she said.  Her goal, making sure drivers see her when she's in the crosswalk. "I just have to trust them."

But Thorsen's trust is wearing thin.

An illness forced Thorsen to start using a wheelchair last spring so this is brand new to her.  She contacted us, saying she's had many crosswalk close calls over the past six months.  So we went with her, watching her cross street after street.

In less than two hours, we saw several examples of drivers cutting through the crosswalk while Thorsen was still in it.

"It scares me!" Thorsen told us.

At one point, a large box truck accelerated, ducking just behind her.

"Sometimes drivers think that I'm not going fast enough," she said.  She wants to tell them, "Hey!  You've got my life in your hands!  You're a lot heavier than I am!"

"Whether that's a marked crosswalk or a corner or an intersection, a pedestrian has the right of way," said Officer John Keating of Saint Paul Police.  In other words, if there's a person anywhere in the crosswalk, drivers have to stay back.

"Being aware of your surroundings and certainly being as visible as possible is certainly something pedestrians can do to keep themselves safe," added Keating.

But even with an orange flag flying above her chair, we saw, time after time, drivers skirting around Thorsen.

"That does create a safety hazard," said Keating.

It makes Thorsen angry.  "I wanna swear and I do swear at them."

Her patience is wearing thin. She hopes drivers will see this story and give her and the thousands of others like her a little more space.

"I can't just stay inside because I'm afraid of somebody running me over."

Click here for crosswalk laws and safety tips from the Minnesota Safety Council.

Click here for crosswalk laws and safety tips from the Minnesota Safety Council.

Where is the Middle???

     I find myself in the middle of a different search for information.  The search is new to me.  I am accustomed to the search for information regarding my epilepsy, and seizures most prominently.  Brain damage and cerebral palsy to  a lesser degree.  Although all four are intertwined.  My search is for how to be of compassionately informed support to someone, who is academically familiar with the medical condition he faces now as he looks in the mirror.
     With some, the temptation is to throw facts, and information--research--at them to help them contain their condition into a manageable form.  With others,, the temptation is to offer pity.  Sometimes, that is manifest in Poster Children to attract justifiable support for individuals with the condition, and for research.  On a personal level, pity well may be uncertainty, and discomfort, as to how to address the situation.  Most tempting, and most frightening to me is the offer to cure or to heal someone by mystical powers.
     Most helpful to me with regard to my seizures, epilepsy, cerebral palsy and brain damage is a balanced approach.
     I don't seek to be cured, or to have never had brain damage, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and seizures.  I cannot roll back history.  Such is a waste of precious energy.  I prefer to seek insights--to how to live an insightful life--on the basis of my brain damage, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and seizures.  To some degree, I have known that since eighth grade.
     I don't know how to be of help.  Facts, and information are readily available.  Pity is against my religion--pity that is closed to the possibility that more constructive responses are available.  Healing by means of mystical powers frightens me.
     I do make a distinction between healing by means of magical waving-of-a-wand means--full healing--and prayer.  The distinction is difficult to articulate.  Sometimes, the words may be the same, yet the tone is different--completely different.  I know it when I hear it--when I feel it.  I try to respond, so as to increase the likelihood of more compassion in the future.
    So, where does that leave the man facing a medical condition new to him personally?   We have known one another for a lifetime.  We respond similarly to much of what I have described--research, pity, cures, and healing by mystical powers.  I find it difficult to articulate the nuances in prayer that exist.
    I am leery of the support that consumer organizations can, and do provide.  I am not saying that they serve no useful purpose.  My concern is that the support--their expressed mission--is aimed more at publicizing research, and raising funds for the continuation for that research.  Both, essential.
    Where is the spiritual element of support?  Where is the spirituality of the human body in this discussion?  Often, the triangle, body, mind, and spirit," is discussed.  Of the three, most often, body and mind are linked.  Similarly, mind and spirit are linked.
    Yet, body and spirit seem miles apart.  I don't know precisely how to articulate it.  Maybe if I did--if we were willing to--articulate the relationship between the two, we might get beyond some ghost-in-a-white-sheet mentality of the body and the spirit.