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(NEW YORK) Thirty years ago Engracia Figueroa, 51, was hit by a Bay Area Rapid Transit train that left her with a spinal cord injury and amputated leg. She now calls her wheelchair an “extension of her body” granting her freedom and independence.
But last week Figueroa says she was “re-disabled” when her $30,000 wheelchair was mangled in the cargo hold of a United flight.
“I was heartbroken,” she said when she first saw what she described as her “completely contorted” chair after her flight to Los Angeles. “I just thought, all of the independence that I fought and strived for and successfully survived for soon to be 30 years by the minute, it’s stripped away, and I was completely disabled and traumatized, as well as hurt and exhausted.”
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Airlines keep losing and damaging wheelchairs at an alarming rate
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7 air travel tips for wheelchair users Cory Lee © Provided by The Points Guy
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Let’s be honest: Flying as a wheelchair user is tough. I’ve traveled to 37 countries and all seven continents as a powered wheelchair user and flying is still the part of traveling that I dread the most. I don’t necessarily dread sitting in the plane seat for hours on end and I definitely don’t have a fear of heights, but instead, I dread not being able to access the restrooms on board and the possibility of my wheelchair getting damaged during the flight.