|
|
|
|
Ray's wife
|
|
Acronym definitions
- TBI -- Traumatic Brain Injury
- ADA -- Americans with Disabilities Act.
- DSS ---- Disabled Student Services at UC Santa Cruz.
I was their client starting Fall 1984 to Spring 1990.
- DSPandS - Disabled Students
Program and Services at Cabrillo College. I was their client
starting Fall 1991 to Spring 2007.
- DRC --- Disabled Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz.
I was their client starting Fall 2007 to Spring 2008.
- DSS was renamed DRC after my sham graduation from UC Santa Cruz in 1989. Their website says in the
1990's, but no more accurate information is available. I found the exact same facade of service under a new name. Changing the name had
affected the hostility I found with DSS. It was more apparent with DRC.
- DSPandS was renamed Accessibility Support
Center (ASC) when I checked in November 2014. Is this the same facade of service under a new name?
|
|
|
After my repair.
|
|
|
I am a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivor with a degree in Biochemistry, I earned after my accident. The experts kept telling me, healing
from my
TBI was no longer possible. Happily, I ignored them (their dire/sadistic attempts to make me feel hopeless) and listened to other head injury survivors.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy did allow me recovery from my TBI 31 years after the climbing accident my family and friends thought had killed me,
|
|
|
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) - Recovery for Head Injury (TBI) Survivors.
|
|
In 1983, a 165 foot rock climbing fall left me in coma for six weeks, with a
broken back, a TBI and other serious injuries. 31 years after
my accident I had finally given up on exercising to improve my physical condition. The right side
of my body didn't respond to motor input anymore. Exercise made me tired, but had no effect on my right side - it was really discouraging. Then in August 2014
I heard about HBOT on Brain Injury Radio. Intrigued, I contacted
Bay Area
Hyperbarics
though I had no expectations of ever having a
functioning right side of my body again.
I was (and am) utterly astounded by this completely unexpected positive increase in my physical well being.
After 60 HBOT sessions:
- I am using my diaphragm to form words again. The volume and depth of my voice is increasing. It is
becoming easier for me to make myself heard in noisy locations. My normal speaking voice is returning after being gone for 31 years.
- After session 3, I realized my right foot was not longer dragging on
the ground. It was ruining my shoes and
The picture above is a link to Bay Area Hyperbarics,
in the southern San Francisco Bay Area.
|
did not respond to exercise, I did not know what else I could do.
- I was so used to chewing with the left side of my mouth, that I was unaware I was doing that.
After 31 years I chew with both sides of my mouth again.
- I can stand with weight on my right leg again. It would not support me before
HBOT
and I fell a few times a year for 31 years.
- After 31 years I have stopped favoring my right leg. My weight is equally spread between
my feet once more.
- After 31 years I no longer lean to the right.
- After 31 years fine motor control is returning to the right side of my body.
- I can shave faster with less pressure.
- Before session 16 I was able to stand free without having to constantly brace myself.
- After 31 years I can read print with both eyes open again.
- After 31 years I can hand write letters again.
- I can pet my cat with my right hand now, without her trying to bite me.
- After 31 years I can eat using my right hand again.
- For the first time ever I can write my own mathematical equations (calculus) and have the time to error check them
for Algebraic mistakes.
- I can tutor mathematics, chemistry and physics because now I have the ability to show in writing what I am talking about.
Before Hyperbarics I was physically unable to do that.
TBI survivors need to know that they have an alternative to being alone, feeling depressed and miserable about themselves.
I will always be grateful to Bay Area
Hyperbarics for helping me mitigate the more serious effects of my TBI.
|
|
|
|
|
Scroll down to
TBI page navigation
or click HERE.
Remember to scroll
up to return here.
|
|
My life is really sad, isolated and depressing,
because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept looking forwards,
trying to ignore the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years.
Wireless Technology (WiFi) has serious concerns which
are being deliberately withheld from the consumer.
Ex: Lack of Media coverage of brain cancer causes.
Independent scientists are in rare agreement on
this issue. Read what they are saying about
wireless communications by clicking Here.
Scientific studies and opinions concerning
wireless communications (54), click
Links
|
Better late then never.
31 years after my accident I found
completely unexpected recovery.
Click on HYPERBARICS
to see my amazing experience.
DSS, DSPandS, DRC and other acronyms used are defined
HERE
Remember to scroll
down to return here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Currently (August 28, 2013):
I thought Disabled Student Services (DSS), Disabled Students Programs
and Services (DSPandS) and
Disabled Resource Center (DRC) were going to help me
succeed after
surviving an accident that should have killed me. I used to dream
about doing cancer research and using our immune system to attack and kill cancer cells. However, I do not have the
needed degree(s) and lab experience with no way to acquire them, because I
am disabled from TBI. The student organizations that were
supposed to help me with my education had no intention (none) of doing
their job. They knew I had no one to talk to, about them and what they were not doing.
In the 24 years I was their client, no one ever expressed any interest
in how DSS, DSPandS
and DRC were (or were not) meeting the specific needs of
my disability.
|
|
|
“What I am going to tell you about is what we teach our physics students
in the third or fourth year of graduate school...
It is my task to convince you not to turn away because you don't
understand it. You see my physics students don't
understand it... That is because I don't understand it. Nobody
does.” - Richard P. Feynman (Nobel prize winning Physicist)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Section 1 (of 3).
|
|
Educational Aftermath.
|
My life is really sad, lonely and depressing,
because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept
trying to ignore the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years.
|
|
[Page 3]
|
|
Top [Page 3]
|
Because I attended UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College I had
to work with DSS starting Fall quarter 1984 to Spring quarter 1990 at UC Santa Cruz.
DSPandS starting Fall semester 1991 to Spring
semester 2007 at Cabrillo College. I
returned to UCSC Fall quarter 2007 to Spring quarter 2008 and
worked with DRC.
- DSS' policies of, “Social Isolation”and
“Learned Helplessness” made me docile, lonely and desperate. These
policies also ruined my academic record. I could not do the homework without
writing assistance or prepare equation sheets for the exams.
- DSPandS and DRC used similar
policies to that of DSS.
They didn't hear anything negative from me. By the time I graduated from UC Santa,
I had been whipped into shape. I was stoic and uncomplaining. I just took whatever
they devised and said
nothing - classic “Social Isolation”and “Learned
Helplessness” response.
|
|
Sasha
|
|
- I have a BA in Biochemistry.
I still am interested in Immunolgy and Mathematics but am realistic of what these three
student organizations have done to my life.
By not accommodating my disability,
DSS, DSPandS and DRC ensured my
Rehabilitation could not happen.
- What graduate school would be interested in a prospective graduate student, who
took 26 years to acquire his undergraduate knowledge?
- What graduate school would be foolish enough to accept a student as old as I am (57 in 2012),
with my academic record of withdraws, repeats and class failures?
The effects of the
“Social Isolation”and “Learned Helplessness”
extends far beyond school. Every aspect of my life is affected:
- I have no wife or children.
- I have no social life and few friends.
- If not for Sasha, my kitty, I would have no outlet for my playfulness,
love and affection.
- I could not survive without disability payments.
- I am left with feelings of hopelessness, paranoia and despair (PTSD).
- For who, and why, is this a desirable outcome?
- What of the registration fees I spent on dropped, repeated or failed classes when I
was a client of DSS, DSPandS
and DRC?
Is anyone going to reimburse me for the money that I wasted?
- Who is going to pay for counseling so I can learn to live with my PTSD
before it destroys me?
- I have been informed that TBI survivors should expect to be taken
advantage of, that my problem lies in my expecting to be treated like an American
citizen, when surviving my accident is all I could hope for.
- Someone is benefitting from treating me like a second class citizen. I have no
idea why anyone would treat another person the way I have been treated?
- I could ask members of DSS, DSPandS
and DRC, but as they have lied to me for 24 years, I would be foolish to believe them.
|
|
|
Two atoms are walking down the street. Suddenly the lead atom stops.
"I think I just lost an electron," it says to the other atom.
"Are you certain?" asks the second atom.
"I'm positive," says the first.
|
|
|
|
|
Section 2 (of 3).
|
|
Educational Aftermath.
|
My life is really sad, lonely and depressing,
because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept
trying to ignore the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years.
|
|
Top [Page 3]
|
Senior research for my degree in Biochemistry:
My senior research, click here
to read my evaluation, sharpened my abilities to think critically and to carefully
consider all aspects of a given problem. In short; I analyzed more then 35, papers
and journal
articles (in Nature, Cell, Biochemistry or unpublished),
to see if the conclusions
reached, were supported by data returned from the experiments.
I was trained to read what was said and to critically analyze the
conclusion(s) presented.
Internet research and conclusions:
Using my abilities to read and evaluate data, I did multiple
Internet searches
in March and April of 2011. I was comparing, what was said on websites for disability
access to Higher
Education, with my experience. This is what I found and the conclusions I reached.
Each website
claimed compliance with the Americans
with Disabilities Act, though some did not even offer paid
note takers. Not one website mentioned writing assistance. The words used,
the phrasing used and the overall 'look' of each website
was nearly identical to that of the websites of UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College
- two schools
that had never accommodated my disability once in 24 years.
At no point did DSS,
DSPandS and DRC ever indicate they had
had ever discussed my treatment amongst themselves. I took this fact to be indicative
of the way TBI Survivors were treated at these schools. My treatment
was not a personal vendetta against me. It was standard practice wherever I looked.
Every school that I looked at used
the same, "cookie cutter" model of disabled students and how to
respond to their needs. Some schools were openly hostile to disabled students, treating
disability as a fraud. They implied, disability was being used by able-bodied students to
"gain-the-system".
Disabled students did not need note-takers, they were able-bodied students just too
lazy to take notes
on their own. Disabled students did not need more time for exams, they were able-bodied
students trying to cheat and so on.
Every school website that I looked at was
offering the same services (mostly) for working with disabled students.
I sent 16 inquiries for further information
and got two replies.
From my efforts and using logical inference I was able to reach the following
three conclusions:
- There is no accountability for the College and/or University education
of TBI Survivors. TBI Survivors that need help writing their
homework can expect the same sort of help that I received - no help.
- Schools across America are not serving survivors of
traumatic incidents and Military mishaps, though they claim they are. Rather,
TBI Survivors
who need writing assitence, will be humiliated, get attacked for being disabled,
given PTSD and denied accommodation for their disability.
- If most TBI Survivors seek to improve themselves with more then a mediocre
education - it will not happen. If you need, and are denied, competent writing help,
you are screwed.
Intelligence, determination and potential lead to frustration,
a wrecked life, poverty, a mediocre education and PTSD. This is my experience.
|
|
|
|
A neutron is sitting in a bar getting hammered. It finally decides it is time
to go and motions to the bartender.
"How much do I owe you?" it asks, reaching for its wallet.
"That isn't necessary," says the bartender.
"I've been here for hours," says the neutron.
"No charge," insists the bartender.
|
|
|
|
|
section 3 (of 3).
|
|
|
Educational Aftermath.
|
My life is really sad, lonely and depressing,
because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept
trying to ignore the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years.
|
|
Top [Page 3]
|
|
Accountability:
|
- Because of no accountability my rehabilitation was derailed.
- None of the Staff people I worked with thought I was capable of publishing what they
did to me on the Internet. I wish it were not necessary, but, as I have discovered,
we have to start talking about rehabilitating TBI Survivors and avoiding the
use of “Social Isolation”and “Learned Helplessness”.
- It would have been physically impossible for me to earn my degree if I had had to
retake the Chemistry and Physics classes I had passed before my accident.
My problems with the lecture portions of these classes are covered in
Page 2 of, “Shaken, not Stirred: Head Injury at a College
and a University.”.
The lab portions required, written pre-lab preparation, written lab notebooks
and written lab reports. I was refused with help writing by the head of
DSS and could not have passed my first Chemistry or Physics class
as a disabled student. It would have been physically impossible for me to
earn my degree in Biochemistry.
|
|
This is occuring and has happened nationwide to many people, but do not take my word for it.
Ask other TBI Survivors what their experience of Higher Education has been like?
- Were they subjected to “Social Isolation”and “Learned Helplessness”?
- Were they ridiculed by the people being paid to help them?
- Were they eligible for Financial Aid?
- Were they isolated from their fellow students?
- Did the policies directed at TBI Survivors make them feel suicidal?
- Did they feel hopeless and alone?
- Did they drop out of school before they graduated?
- What is the quality of the education they received?
- Could they get a job with what they learned in school?
- Were they asked for feedback?
|
one page to go.
|
24 years of emotional trauma at the college and university.
|
|
|
I was the top student in Organic Chemistry
at UC Santa Cruz in the summer of 1982.
A year later, in mid-summer 1983, a 165 foot rock climbing fall did not end my life or paralyze me, despite
breaking my back. I woke six weeks later to an unforseen lifestyle change. While unconcious, I had been transfomed
into a criminal who survived a traumatic accident with a head injury.
|
|
As I have never been imprisoned: “Social Isolation” and
“Learned Helplessness” were two new concepts to me. These two policies
would ruin 32 years of my life;
leaving me with no way to
afford a family, few friends and a terrible self image.
After 24 years of schooling, I am disabled, poor, unemployed and unemployable, because I was fooled into
believing staff people were interested in helping educate me.
|
|
|
Page 1
|
Page 2
|
Page 3
|
Page 4
|
|
In Fall 1984, my 24 year educational experience of paranoid loneliness and social isolation from my peers
and the people around me was begun at the UC campus.
The organizations that help disabled students with their education,
attempted to make me go away by denying me accommodation for my disability.
This was a deliberate event. I can not imagine why anyone would treat a law abiding American Citizen
like a criminal, though I have tried.
The Staff people that did this to me were (and are) sadistic monsters who broke the law.
|
|
My diploma in
Biochemistry.
|
24 years of psychological torture, “Social Isolation” and
“Learned Helplessness” for the final year of my degree.
They had conditioned me in 1984/1985 to get used to being treated badly (sadistically) by them and I no longer protested anything
about my treatment after initially being attacked whenever I had.
The staff I was forced to work with at the UC campus and the Community College ignored parts of the ADA from its
passage in 1990, until Spring 2008 (one of them bragged to me in October 2009),
I finally realized these people had no intention of ever doing their job and I finally dropped out of school.
| >
|
|
|
My life is really sad, isolated and depressing,
because I refused to give up hope for my rehabilitation. I kept looking forwards,
trying to ignore the the subtle, but constant, sadism from the staff that were helping me and would not drop out of school for 24 years.
|
What these Staff people did to me is not unique to the UC campus and the community
college I attended. The attitude they were using to justify their actions was evident wherever I looked on the Internet.
|
|
Decriminalize head injury.
|
- TBI survivors are not criminals or freaks - educate us.
- Toughen and Enforce The ADA.
- Make feedback mandatory.
- Make staff accountable for their actions.
|
There is strong correlation between cell phone use and brain cancer. Follow these links (54) to scientific studies and opinions.
Links 1 - 27 or
Links 28 - 54
|
As a head injury survivor, I needed
help with my education, but that
is not what I got.
|
|
You are here
|
Public employess chose to deprive the human race of a needed, dedicated and intelligent, cancer researcher (me), because they could.
These people intentionally ruined my chances to live a normal life and provide for a family because I am a head injury survivor.
Please help me expose them. Send links of this website with a brief explanation to every US government agency,
US government official, US government employee, anyone and/or media sources or organizations you can think of.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
