close

Ramon – What’s important for parents to understand?

Ramon – What’s important for parents to understand?

More Videos by Ramon
Transcript
They have to look beyond what’s wrong.  And you have to start looking at the potential—“What are we going to do about his or her life?”  Not, “What are we going to do with her or him?”—“What are we going to do with his or her life?�... Show More

They have to look beyond what’s wrong.  And you have to start looking at the potential—“What are we going to do about his or her life?”  Not, “What are we going to do with her or him?”—“What are we going to do with his or her life?”  Start thinking forward.  You know, “How do I get them in my house?”  It’s going to be okay.  The family, you know, I talk to folks, again, this becomes ethnic or cultural, I talk to people and they’re moms, and the father, they’re completely destroyed.  Because the person in the bedside, it was part of their unit that’s probably going to be one of the providers in their household, that was going to help the family move on, and get the American dream.  Now that person is a burden.  Unfortunately, that does fall on people’s thoughts that, “Wow, now we have to take care of him or her.  We’re busy man; we’ve got nine to five, we’re at the factory.”  So I got to tell them, “Listen, if we get this person to understand that him or her can be independent, with whatever limited function we have.”  You know, some people need more assistance than others, so I can’t say to a person with paraplegia or a person with quadriplegia—tetraplegia—life’s the same; it’s different.   So, if I need to tell the family that you have to have the person become independent so that you can get on with your lives.  

Show Less
add

Ramon – What’s important for parents to understand?

Ramon

Injured in 1999 at age 25, paraplegic
More Videos by Ramon
Transcriptadd

They have to look beyond what’s wrong.  And you have to start looking at the potential—“What are we going to do about his or her life?”  Not, “What are we going to do with her or him?”—“What are we going to do with his or her life?”  Start thinking forward.  You know, “How do I get them in my house?”  It’s going to be okay.  The family, you know, I talk to folks, again, this becomes ethnic or cultural, I talk to people and they’re moms, and the father, they’re completely destroyed.  Because the person in the bedside, it was part of their unit that’s probably going to be one of the providers in their household, that was going to help the family move on, and get the American dream.  Now that person is a burden.  Unfortunately, that does fall on people’s thoughts that, “Wow, now we have to take care of him or her.  We’re busy man; we’ve got nine to five, we’re at the factory.”  So I got to tell them, “Listen, if we get this person to understand that him or her can be independent, with whatever limited function we have.”  You know, some people need more assistance than others, so I can’t say to a person with paraplegia or a person with quadriplegia—tetraplegia—life’s the same; it’s different.   So, if I need to tell the family that you have to have the person become independent so that you can get on with your lives.  

Ramon – What’s important for parents to understand?
close