Daniel J Vance – “Drake Isn’t Dead Yet”

It’s official – I’m Not Dead Yet.  That’s what the title of the column by Daniel J Vance says.  Vance writes a column that is published by a number of papers around the country – and he writes on disability issues.

He interviewed me last week to get an update on NDY and some of the life and death issues facing the disability community.  We talked for quite awhile.  Not all of our discussion made it into the column, but he covered a lot of ground in a small amount of space.  I’ll share the first two paragraphs from his current column, Drake Isn’t Dead Yet.  This link is to the Rocklin & Roseville Today.  I’ll add other I come across as they become available.

From the column:

When infant Stephen Drake was being born sideways breech in a New York hospital in the mid-’50s, a doctor wrongly used forceps to pull him from the womb. The resulting brain injury gave Drake hydrocephalus, which would require a lifelong brain shunt to manage. He also would have permanent challenges with nonverbal learning, tremors, body movement, and coordination.

Now Drake works for Not Dead Yet of Rochester, New York. In part, it’s a nonprofit group for people with disabilities opposed to assisted suicide laws.

If you’re interested in the rest of the column – and I hope anyone checking here is – please go to the link (which I’ll add one more time below) to read the whole thing.  Newspapers keep track of how much internet traffic individual columns get and it’s worthwhile to make sure we let them know that there are readers who have an interest in disability issues.

Please read the rest of Drake Isn’t Dead Yet here.