By Paula Span: Complete Post through this link…
ngd-I consider this straight up disability discrimination and refusal to accommodate…
Robert Lewinger is tired of being berated by his gastroenterologist because he’s overdue for a colonoscopy. He’s perfectly willing to have one. And he’s more than ready for cataract surgery on his second eye.
The problem: Mr. Lewinger, 72, a retired lawyer who lives in Manhattan, can’t schedule either of these procedures, which involve anesthesia or sedation, unless he supplies the name and phone number of the person taking him home afterward. Otherwise, clinics and outpatient surgical centers refuse to make appointments.
Mr. Lewinger is also willing to undergo Mohs surgery, as his dermatologist has recommended, for two small skin cancers on his face. But the surgeons associated with her practice also insist on medical escorts, even though most Mohs surgery is performed under local anesthesia and doesn’t require them.
Transportation itself isn’t the difficulty; Mr. Lewinger could summon an Uber or a Lyft, call a car service or hail a cab. What he needs is “someone to escort me out of the building, take me back to my apartment and see me into it,” he explained. “It shouldn’t be so hard.”
It is, though. Mr. Lewinger is divorced and lives alone, like a growing number of older Americans.
