[Headline] Protesters test mettle of conference-goers

By Bob Shemeligian
LAS VEGAS SUN

[Image]
[Image caption] The first protesters break through barricades Tuesday and into the Las Vegas Convention Center. Frank McNeal, left, of Denver carries a sign which sums up many of the protesters' desires. BY BRAD TALBUTT / STAFF

Organizers of a national disabled rights group planned more local demonstrations against nursing homes today.

But it will be hard for them to top their Tuesday afternoon actions at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

More than 300 members of American Disabled for Attendant Program, many in wheelchairs, shouted at nursing home representatives from behind barricades and 44 were arrested as they tried to
enter the convention center to press their demands.

The demonstrators also hung a wheelchair from a cross in front of the convention center.

"We're being crucified daily by AHCA," demonstrator George Zakarewsky of Philadelphia said as he helped raise the wheelchair.

Zakarewsky was referring to the American Health Care Association, a trade association representing 11,000 nursing homes and rehabilitation centers.

More than 4,000 AHCA representatives are attending meetings and seminars at the convention center this week. Many of the trade association members are staying at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The protesters carried placards that stated: "Don't Gamble with Our Lives," "Nursing Homes - No Dice" and "You Can't Have Sex in a Nursing Home "

Many of them chanted: "AHCA, AHCA, cut the crap. Time to face ADAPT."

ADAPT members say they bear no grudges against the Hilton, the convention center or the Tag Vegas community.

They say they are here to protest the "incarceration" of disabled Americans in nursing homes.

ADAPT wants Congress to redirect 25 percent of $23 billion in nursing home funds to home care for the disabled.

Activists argue that more than 1.6 million disabled Americans are being cared for in nursing homes, many against their will, and that this shift in funding is more practical and more humane.

"AHCA would like you to believe that the nursing home industry is a 'care' industry," said ADAPT member Mark Johnson of Atlanta. "In reality, they represent corporate giants that profit off the needs of people with disabilities and their families at the expense of lives."

Johnson said if AHCA would support the demonstrators' position on the reallocation of nursing home funds, the protests would stop.

But Dave Kyllo, AHCA spokesman, said the association cannot and will not support that position.

"We believe the issue of expanded home care for the disabled should be addressed through national health-care reform," Kyllo said.

Kyllo said the demonstrators delayed some AHCA members on their way to seminars and caused other disruptions, but most trade members carried on.

"It's been a long day," Kyllo said.

The same was true for 120 Metro Police and Nevada Highway Patrol officers who were on the scene to direct traffic and curtail illegal acts by the protesters.

Scores of Metro officers escorted protesters from the convention center to buses equipped with wheelchair lifts. The protesters who were arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing were processed at a temporary facility within a quarter mile of the convention center.

Metro Lt. Carl Fruge said some officers suffered bruised shins trying to grapple with protesters in electric wheelchairs.

"These chairs are so powerful, they could actually break legs," Fruge said.

Police officials said they are not happy with the manner in which they are being treated by the protesters.

"When we met with ADAPT officials, we pleaded with them to give us an idea of when we would be needed, to handle staff changes on our side, and to keep the costs down for taxpayers, but they have failed to do so," Fruge said.

ADAPT officials and members say their cause is a crucial one, and the Las Vegas community should bear with them.

"The big issue is that nursing homes have a sugar daddy in Medicaid," ADAPT member Scott Heincman said. "Nursing homes are prison. They tell you when to eat, when to go to bed. They suck dry the human spirit."

"I'd rather die than go back to a nursing home," said Monique Alexander, who has spent all but three of her 24 years in one.

Lajuina Votaw of ADAPT said she once worked in a nursing home as a private duty nurse.

"I've seen things from the other side of the fence," said Votaw, who is confined to a wheelchair. "There are people lying there in their own urine. They need to be changed. They lie there so long, they get chilled and sometimes they die I know what goes on in nursing homes."

Created on

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Posted on

Friday 13 September 2019

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