Long Road to Recovery for Victims of the Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon finish line not only claimed three lives but the limbs of 16 people.

The disability community is unique.  Unlike most minorities, one can join it at any time.  Sometimes, like the marathon, it happens violently.  The brutality of the attack has had a profound effect on the mental and physical health of victims, as described by Dr. Scott Ryan in a New York Times article:

“The most disturbing thing for me in treating these patients is that they were awake after it happened and looked down and saw these terrible wounds,” said Dr. Scott Ryan, chief of orthopedic trauma at Tufts Hospital in Boston. “Most of the time, patients with that bad injuries, they’re from a car accident or motorcycle accident and by the time they get to hospital they’re not with it enough to look down and say, ‘Oh my God, look what happened to my leg.’ ”

The article discusses the acute anxiety patients are suffering from, as well as multiple surgeries and pain medications that don’t begin to touch the crescendo of agony inflicted by the mental and physical stress of the attack.

These people will struggle to regain not only their health but also their sense of safety; that their community is an inclusive place.

In a way, the inclusion movement is a way of fighting the fear that terrorism induces. It’s a way of pushing back. The more we celebrate the differences and rejoice in the things that bond us together we’re creating a stronger world.

The only thing Community Living is meant to break is barriers.  The world could use more of that and then some right now.