Advocate Mark Karner worked to help people with disabilities lead independent lives.
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Polio stole things from Mark Karner, bit by savage bit.
After the disease scourged him as a
toddler, he was unable to walk. Lingering complications took away most
of the freedoms people take for granted. Scoliosis bent his back. He
could only turn his head and move his arms a little. He fought diabetes,
congestive heart failure and glaucoma. He had 12 corrective surgeries
on his muscles and bones. To breathe, he had to wear a special mask 24
hours a day.
He was so small that his mother could
carry him, even when he was a grown man. In the parlance of the disabled
community, he was a “full assist”—someone who needed help for 15 hours a
day, in order to get out of bed; use the bathroom, and bathe, dress,
and eat.
Still, his blue eyes danced.
The breathing mask obscured them, so his
longtime companion, Adrianne Olejnik, sometimes asked him to lift off
the apparatus so she could peek at the face she loved.
Moments like that took the edge off all those days in all those hospitals.
Source : Sun times , 22nd June 2013
Source : Sun times , 22nd June 2013
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