Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

I am sixty-two years old and working, trying to make ends meet and taking care of my wife at night.  My wife is confined to her bed and unable to speak.  She is technically quadriplegic, her spinal cord being damaged at the brain-stem.  This was caused by an aneurysm over two years ago.  She currently receives Medicare and Medical, Social Security, which helps pays for her chucks and briefs, medication and nutrition,  She also receives 283 hours of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), which is the maximum allowed by law.
IHSS case workers and Administrative Judge Vokker agreed that she should get the same hours as spinal chord injury patients who receive more than 700 hours per month, though she is legally not in the same category.
The IHSS case workers indicate to me that in the general category of sick or injured, care givers around the clock are not covered whose attendance is sometimes merely as comfort measure.  They also cite two exceptions, those mentally degenerated to the extent that without constant watching, they might injure themselves, like burning themselves on the stove, and those suffering from paralyzing spinal cord injury.
Is there anything you might do?  Can't you make some special ruling to save us?  I am becoming exhausted and loosing strength.  My wife is not mentally degenerated, though this whole ordeal has extracted a huge mental toll from both of us, but she is paralyzed and confined to her bed just like spinal chord injury patients, so why does she not qualify for the same treatment.  It's not fair to us at all.  To make our situation even more difficult, the bursting aneurysm caused her to become mute by severing her reticular nerves near the brain stem.  Though she can still see, she can't speak.

Sincerely,
 
 

Joel Webb, 910-B 20th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90403, (313) 828-2292