Public Perception Essay

Robert F. Murphy

When people think about Robert Murphy they usually think about a person who lost the use of their legs, and traveled the world to learn about the things that he loved most. There is more to his story though, there are a lot more emotional aspects to this story, and it makes you think about how it affected his life. From childhood there had been signs of something being wrong with him, but they had been misdiagnosed and ignored. These symptoms became clearer as his life went on and the problem was not about to go away. It was only the beginning of the greatest and most unforgettable journey he would ever undergo in his life time.

As a young child, Robert liked to run around and play with his friends, as many children do when they are young. It was at the age of five when he had his first signs that something was wrong with him, and it was misdiagnosed as a case of rheumatism. That was the first mistake. If it had been correctly diagnosed and treated at this time, Robert might have been able to walk and have the use of his arms when he was older. If the hospitals had had the technology and knowledge back then, they could have diagnosed Robert’s problem and may have prevented was happening to him.

In his 40’s he started to have muscle cramps/spasms and thought that it was just from lifting something heavy the day before. Robert thought that it would go away in a couple days or so, but it never did. He was forced one day to go to a doctor by his wife, and it was a good thing that he did. He was not very smart to have not wanted to go to the doctor in the first place, because this could have also have prevented him from being unable to walk, and use his arms.

In his later years his problem was diagnosed, but by this time he was not able to walk very well, or hold anything in his left hand. Robert could not go anywhere without someone with him because he was unable to drive, and he could not go out on the street because it was too crowded and it was poorly paved so it was hard for him to control his wheelchair.

Many people underestimate what this man went through, and they don’t really think about what this can do to a person’s life. Even with what this man went through he still had high hopes, and did not let his disability get to him. Many people looked at him differently when he was in a wheelchair and he did not want to be treated differently because of this. Many people may have felt sorry for him and thought that it was weird for him to now be like this, so they could not talk to him because it was weird.

Day 10 (pg.216-231)

• he realizies how a disorder like his can change a persons social life

Day 9 (pg.192-215)

• In 1983 he started reading about advances in neurosurgery, and consulted with a neurosurgeon that said that he could remove the tumour
• if he did this then he could not get worse, and he could get better, but probably not walk.
• he may be able to breath better, and on his own

Day 8 (pg.168-191)

• the first time that he heard of anthropology was in 1947
• started to work on a project of diability at around 1979
• the project ended in 1983
• some of his muscle spasms got so bad that he would slip half way down his chair, because of this he had to wear a seat belt
• he could not feel temperature, and his pores did not open and close to exude persperation
• from 1980-1981 his state of health began to decline
• he found that from sitting in his chair all day he started getting ulcers
• one got so big that he had to have surgery on it to get it removed
• in 1984 he came down with a bad case of the flu, which did not help his healing and he got weaker
• in 1981 he got another ulcer, but it was not as big as the first one. He got that one removed as well by surgery
• later that summer he got another ulcer that formed on top of the surgical scar
• he went in for more surgery to remove it in the end of October, and he had to stay at he hospital for 2 months
• every 2 hours in the night someone would come and turn him over so that he would not get any more ulcer, or blood pooling
• as the pressure on the spinla cord in the lower cervical area increased, his fingers and hands had become weaker and stiffer
• in 1981 he could still pick up light objects with his left hand
• in about 1982 or 1983 he could do only that with his right hand and not pick up heavier things
• bought a computer because he could not type on a typewriter
• his left arm had become too weak to move his wheelshair, so he ordered a electric one
• his chest muscles had deteriorated, and hiss lung capacity had dropped to 50%

Day 7 (pg.144-167)

• he found that many companies would not hire people who had a wheelchair
• he found it hard to get around at Columbia University because there was not a lot of wheelchair accessible ways to get from one place to another (because of the stairs)
• he wrote a letter to the president of Columbia explaining the problem and they spent about 700,000 dollars in changes for it to be wheel chair accessible
• he felt that this gave him power and he thought that this was the only time since he was in a wheelchair that he had been truely respected and heard
• it is fairly hard to get a job when you are disabled, and the money that you get from medicare, and for having a disability that stops you from working is very little
• six months after his spinal cord surgery, he began to notice that he was on a very low plateau
• his exercises showed no further improvement
• his physiotherapy was not helping much either
• one day in 1978 he noticed that he could not raise his right leg high enough to get it on to the foot rest, but he could do it every so often
• the tumour began to keep growing
• and from 1977 to 1979 his left foot kept draging more and more heavily on the floor, and the right leg could not move as far forward anymore
• in 1978 he gave up walking for the fear of falling, but he could still stand, and walk a few steps with his walker
• in November of 1978 he went to stand up to get into a car, but he could not

Day 6 (pg.120-143)

• he found that when he talked to people when he had his disability they talked to him differently then when he did not have it.
• people treated him differently because if his condition, and he wished that he would be treated the same as when he had no disability
• between 1980 and 1983 he did research on social relations of the disabled
• found that there was a pattern of discriminating against the handicapped
• he found it hard to travel around on the streets becasue they were crowded and they were not very well paved

Day 5 (pg.96- 119)

• in all the years that he has had the tumour, he had never consciously asked "why me?"
• he had many dreams about him walking and doing things that he could not do in real life, but when he remembered that he was disabled he would stop what he was doing and sit down or stand there until he wakes up
• his fingers had lost both strength and dexterity