Disability Activist Passes Due to Complications

Disability activist and member of Hand in Hand, Engracia Figueroa, passed away due to complications incurred when her custom-built wheelchair was damaged by United Airlines while in their cargo hold.

Having incurred lasting injuries that required highly specific support structures to maintain her balance and spinal cord patency, Figueroa was given a temporary loaner chair which failed to provide the standard of care she required. The Company was reluctant to accept fault and replace the chair, instead spending months trying to insist on theoretically cheaper, but only cosmetically functional repairs. Described as a vital extension of her body by a fellow activist, United’s negligence in carriage of her property led to a chain of events that took her life months later. 

Figueroa was traveling back from a rally to promote congressional investment in the home health care system when she learned that her $30,000, custom-built wheelchair had been destroyed in the cargo hold of her United flight. Without its assistance, she was forced to wait five hours on a broken manual wheelchair. Hand in Hand described her ordeal in a statement, describing the sequence of events.

"Her struggle to maintain her balance over that length of time in the faulty device led to significant injuries. When she was finally able to return home, she experienced acute pain, and was admitted to the hospital multiple times in the subsequent months," said the group. "Not only did United Airlines refuse to replace the demolished wheelchair, insisting that it could be repaired, but the loaner chair they provided further exacerbated her injuries."

Hand in Hand said that the delays in agreement to replace the chair had a serious impact on the activists' body, with the loaner chair they provided giving little proper support for her weight. In their statement, the organization described the outcome of United's haggling, as the company believed repairs to her original chair would be possible, something Hand in Hand insists that “a motorized wheelchair that has undergone that much damage poses a severe risk of fire, and is unsafe.” 

"While fighting with United to replace her chair, Engracia was forced to use a loaner chair that was not properly fitted to Engracia’s body. This further exacerbated her pressure sore, and caused muscle spasms, severe edema, and an inability to eat, as well as two additional hospitalizations,” said the group. In an update to their statement including the details of her medical problems, the group added “The sore became infected and the infection eventually reached her hip bone, requiring emergency surgery to remove the infected bone and tissue.  Engracia passed away in the morning on Sunday, October 31st, 2021." 

Hand in Hand believes Engracia's loss is a rallying cry to demand action from the airline industry, saying the industry destroys an average of 29 wheelchairs per day, which can lead to devastating results. 

"All of us at Hand in Hand are heartbroken, shocked and enraged by Engracia’s needless death. This loss should never have happened. While we are reeling from the layers of injustice this tragedy makes visible, we are holding Engracia’s tenacity and resolve as our guidepost. Lives are at stake in the work that we do, and our current ableist and racist system continues to fail our communities time and time again. We cannot and will not stand by and let these systems of oppression prevail."

FMI: www.united.com