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AMPUTATION ONLINE MAGAZINE

MAY 25, 2001

Volume 6 Issue No.3

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AOLM is sponsored by

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CONTENTS

POV - Editorial - BC Election Frenzy [Canada]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Robo-eels, critters on chips lead cyborg pack [US]

HEALTHCARE

Douglas Coupland's public anguish[Canada]

One in ten 'harmed' in hospital [UK]

BUSINESS

Hanger announces Quarterly Report [US]

AROUND THE WORLD

Sharia: Two To Be Amputated For Stealing Donkeys [Nigeria]

Intifadah toll: disabilities at alarming rate [Israel]

First amputation on panda [China]

ADPP cares for war refugee children [Angola]

GENERAL DISABILITY

Supreme Court Agrees to Review 2 Disability Cases [US]

Toyota and US Airways Seek To Overturn Rulings for Injured [US]

National Disability Research Institute Opens April 26 [US]

WHY A CORRECTED DISABILITY SHOULD STILL COUNT AS A DISABILITY FOR PURPOSES OF EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION LAW [US]

Tyler woman indicted on charges of capital murder [US]

ENTERTAINMENT

Review: 'Say It Isn't So' isn't so funny [US]

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POV

Point of View

I emerged from the carnage, scarred but no permanent damage, bruised but not battered, 28 days of hard work and wanting more !

That's how I felt coming out of the recent BC election - what a blast ! From April 18 the gloves were off and in the last week of the campaign the protective headgear and jock protection also came off.

The Liberals won with a record breaking landslide, the existing government New Democratic Party was demoralised and elected only 2 candidates. The Green Party came from 1.99% province wide [1996] to 12 per cent province wide as of May 16, a record increase of 523% in the number of people actually voting for the party.

Sadly, the two elected NDP candidates were in the two constituencies of Vancouver-Hastings and Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant. My battle with Joy MacPhail was glorius, she kicked my butt and I was wiser for it. In the end the resources of the NDP overwhelmed us, our meagre $1500 budget was paltry compared to the $50,000 maximum used by the other candidates. Our fresh faced volunteers were new to politics and amazed [more like shocked] by the goings on at all-candidates debates. As a first time candidate [but reasonably experienced campaign worker] I knew what would happen if the race got tight, it did get tight and we had very little in reserve to answer it.

People with disabilities make excellent candidates - you may not be able to do the door to door stuff, but people love it when you speak up for what you feel is right. I was the only candidate that I met that also wore shorts ! Amazingly, I ended up with 2500 votes [15 per cent], that's 2500 supporters I and the party did not have one month ago; it's also up from the 2.65 per cent and 486 votes in the 96 election.

I heartily encourage ALL PWD's to get involved in politics and seek election.

Ian Gregson

Editor AOLM

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Robo-eels, critters on chips lead cyborg pack

The cyborg eel is only one member of a menagerie of animal/machine hybrids that relies on sophisticated microelectronics  

May 8, 2001

By Richard Stenger

CNN

(CNN) -- Melding animals and automatons, researchers have concocted a growing number of bizarre cyborgs that could transform science and perhaps the human species itself.

Mixing and matching parts of everything from fish with robots and bacteria with microchips, scientists hope their creations someday lead to advances in medicine, warfare and environmental protection.

But critics contend that such meddling could lead to consequences that do more harm than good.

In Chicago, researchers have fused the brain of a primitive lamprey eel with a robot the size of a hockey puck, creating a living machine that tracks a beam of light in a laboratory ring, like a miniature bull chasing a matador's red cape.

Part biological and part mechanical, the crude cyborg is equipped the brain stem of an eel, which, kept alive in a saline solution, receives input from electronic light sensors and directs the robotic wheels to move toward the source of the beam.

Changing the location and intensity of the light, the scientists noticed that the eel brain could adapt to changing conditions in its effort to locate the source.

The Northwestern University researchers hope to unlock the mysteries of the animal's nervous system.

"We are focused on the use of this instrument as a tool to understand the processing of information by a group of brain cells," said Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi, one of the primary researchers. "In particular, we are interested in the biological mechanisms by which nerve cells 'program' themselves."

Induced to glow on an integrated circuit, these bacteria cells generated all the light necessary for this long-exposure photograph  

The scientists are focusing on a structure located between the spinal cord and higher brain centers that is believed to integrate information from different origins, such as tactile or visual, to shape the commands that control muscle movement, Mussa-Ivaldi said. The research eventually could help doctors fashion sophisticated artificial limbs for those suffering from nerve damage, he said.

The cyborg eel is only one member of a menagerie of animal/machine hybrids that relies on sophisticated microelectronics. In other projects in the United States, monkey brains have been wired to control robotic appendages, moth antennae have been used to sniff out explosives, and bacteria have been engineered to glow in the presence of environmental toxins.

In the last experiment, microbiologists cemented genetically modified bacteria to microchips, creating an innovative way to clean up dangerous chemicals.

The hybrid includes genetic material from a luminescent aquatic microorganism and another bacteria that breaks down pollutants into simpler, safer compounds.

Affixed to microcircuits with latex and other polymers, the so-called "critters on a chip" eat harmful toxins, emit a blue-green light, and then can transmit a signal to a receiver linked to a remote computer, said researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The living sensors could someday be used to monitor industrial pollutants in the water and soil and even help diagnose medical conditions in humans, said the project's principal investigator.

"I envision devices that detect disease much earlier than conventional detection methods. It could eventually be possible to initiate treatment at this very early stage using implanted devices that communicate with cells at the molecular level," said Oak Ridge microbiologist Michael Simpson.

In this robot setup using a pattern of colored circles (lower right), the overhead camera tracks the robot. Trajectories are plotted with each symbol representing a target light (upper right)  

'Science marches faster than ethics'

Amid the fanfare over possible medical benefits, critics wonder if the biotech hybrids might lead to Frankenstein-like outcomes.

"I think the science is marching faster than the ethics can keep up. Once we figure out how to do something, it is rare that the creators fully think through what the ethical implications are," said Steven Mizrach, a Florida International University anthropologist who has written extensively on the ethics of cyborg technology.

One concern: What happens after medical advances allow humans to replace broken biological parts with new mechanical ones? The human race could inadvertently divide along the lines of biological haves and have-nots, he said.

Some will artificially augment their bodies as they see fit while others will keep suffering from disease, infirmity and "bad genes."

"The 21st century is largely going to see a greater integration of biology and technology, but I'm not sure if we've fully thought through in which ways these two domains may not integrate," he said.

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HEALTHCARE

Douglas Coupland's public anguish

How his niece's birth defect inspired his art

Michael Scott Vancouver Sun

Spike is Douglas Coupland's first public art exhibit since the 1980s.

Douglas Coupland stands beside Green Soldier Number One, part of his show Spike, which opens today at the Monte Clark Gallery. The exhibit is his way of trying to come to terms with his niece's birth defect, part of an unexplained increase in 1999 in North Vancouver.It was the women in the delivery room who were the first to notice. In the spring of 1999, a baby was born without a left hand in Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver. Then another baby, and another. Something's going on here, mused the nurses. And the data-gathering function of the medical system swung into action.

While families reeled from the sorrow of bearing children with malformed limbs, health administrators trudged across a landscape of statistics, looking for patterns that might explain why 30 babies along the North Shore of the Lower Mainland had been afflicted, double the number in an average year.

Among those desperately seeking answers was Douglas Coupland, the popular author and visual artist. Coupland, notoriously private, spoke openly about the unexplained rise in the number of birth defects and encouraged the media to follow the story after his niece Siri was born missing her left hand and part of her forearm.

"You go to sleep and you wake up with this steady level of anger," says Coupland, recalling the trauma of that spring. "Suddenly everything in the world is suspect: the ink in your pen, the paper beneath your hand, the bleach in your laundry. Something did this. Something."

Some of that anger resurfaced this week as Coupland opened an exhibition of sculpture inspired by his family's experiences.

Despite media attention at the time, answers were frustratingly slow in coming. Hospital staff closed ranks. The statistical study ground on.

Two years later, when findings finally were released, they proved to be cold comfort. The families were told only that the 1999 spike in limb abnormalities -- the label for their conjoined and ongoing heartache -- was not statistically large enough to warrant more detailed study. The spike, medical officials said, might be nothing more than the result of better reporting practices.

Despite that response, Coupland and his family -- and the families of many other children affected -- continue to believe that some toxic agent was responsible. In medical parlance that agent has a name: a teratogen, a substance capable of interfering with the development of a fetus. The name comes from the Greek word teras, for monster.

The idea of it began to plague Coupland. Something somewhere on the North Shore in October of 1998, an errant cloud of fragrance from a perfume tester in a mall, a highway crew spraying for weeds, a bad batch of floor wax, something touched the lives of 30 families and left its indelible mark. "Something, we don't know what, something in the air, in the water, in the soil, somewhere between Squamish and Deep Cove, did this," Coupland says.

Against this backdrop of distress and bewilderment, Coupland has now returned to the visual artmaking that first brought him to public notice: before the era-defining novels, before the hip prognosticating, before the fame for being famous, Doug Coupland was a sculptor who had a solo show at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1987, three years after he graduated from Emily Carr.

Spike, the superbly conceived and flawlessly executed installation of sculpture on view now at the Monte Clark Gallery, is Coupland's first large-scale public artwork since that time.

The deeply personal nature of the show -- a cry of pain in response to his niece's birth defect -- packs an unexpected wallop. Despite his wariness of public attention, Coupland has served up the private details of his family life in an effort to exorcise the monster.

(Although it is the first public show in many years, Coupland's personal life has always bristled with his art making. His friends often receive quixotically composed and illustrated notes, such as thank-you cards written in felt marker on postcard-sized pieces of sheet metal. His West Vancouver home is adorned with constantly evolving, wall-sized collages. Even his garden is a variety of sculpture project, its intricate pathways and beds an expressive medium.)

Spike consists of heroic-sized enlargements of plastic soldiers, the kind we might have played with in the 1970s, and equally monumental renderings of the plastic bottles in which household cleaners and shampoos and automotive products are sold. The two sets of figures are arranged on a series of large white plinths. From the doorway the soldiers appear to be fighting a guerrilla action amongst the giant Alberto VO5, Pennzoil and Fantastik bottles.

The line from private sadness to public art, in this case at least, is astonishingly clear. In the midst of his grief over his niece's limb anomaly, Coupland found himself obsessed by the ocean of chemically active liquids in which we are immersed: the detergents, the spray cleaners, the motor oils and anti-freezes, the furniture polishes, the bug sprays, the paint strippers, the degreasers. His moody preoccupation coalesced one day in Wal-Mart, where on a whim, he bought one of every kind of bottled household product he could find. He took them home, removed the labels, emptied the contents and began to consider them as sculptural forms.

"Who knows where impulses come from," Coupland observes. "But there I was, and suddenly I just wanted to have one of every plastic bottle I could see."

The idea took fuller shape when artist friend Angela Grossman idly remarked that the bottles had one thing in common: they were designed to fit the human hand. In the instant of that offhand remark, the unseen hand of package design and the missing hand of Coupland's young niece began to reverberate against one another.

The finesse of Coupland's completed bottle forms is seductive. They are heavy objects, rendered in layers of carveable polyurethane and fiberglass over aluminum frames. But the carefully designed curves and ridges of the original bottles, enlarged here to statuesque proportions, are so alluring it's hard not to want to touch their smooth surfaces.

For Coupland, that degree of attractiveness -- heightened by a palette of bright, candy-cane colours -- hides a poisonous heart. However seductive the containers are, their contents are toxic. Seen this way, the atomizer on top of the spray cleaner bottle, for instance, takes on something of the lethal promise of a cobra's hooded head.

Coupland pairs the bottle forms with even bigger enlargements of toy soldiers, the cheap, made-in-China green plastic kind that are poorly moulded. Writ larger than life-size, their mismatched seams and variously missing limbs are further commentary on the disabilities that affected the 30 North Shore children.

"The whole situation has been like a war inside my head," says Coupland, referring to his family and its need for answers. The edge of conflict in his voice and the reference to war add another level of significance to his use of toy soldiers.

The works themselves are massive, hard and cool to the touch, and heavy because of their metal undercarriages. Coupland jokes that they are so solidly constructed you could run them through a car wash.

In addition to the bottle forms and soldier figures, a set of four portrait photographs are being exhibited at the Monte Clark Gallery as an adjunct to Spike. Discussing these works, the old Coupland re-emerges, enigmatic and veiled as to their meaning. They appear to be four head-and-shoulder shots from a 1980-vintage high school year book, digitally altered so that the faces are barely visible. Even asked directly about their meaning, Coupland deflects questions. The only clue to the young people's identities and their fate is in the title of the work, Dead: Lisa, Cheryl, Mark and Jason.

Has any of the work in Spike helped Coupland leave behind the torment of his family's trouble? "You're always bargaining in situations like this," he says. "I don't think it ever ends." Coupland has been actively involved in the search for medical answers, attending meetings and encouraging the media to follow the story. To this day, he remains unconvinced that the regional health authority pursued the issue as thoroughly as it should have.

But through it all, Coupland says his niece has been a happy, entrancing child. Siri's parents are working now with community groups involved with children with limb abnormalities. The day before the opening of his exhibition, Coupland was nervous about how his extended family would react to the installed work. None of them had seen all of it at once.

"To some extent [my family] and I have agreed to let this go," he said of his niece's experience.

"There's no Erin Brockovich who's going to come along and answer our questions. You just learn to live with it."

Spike continues at the Monte Clark Gallery until June 16, and then moves to the Totem Gallery in New York's SoHo district for an exhibition that opens Sept. 6. The sculptures are made in editions of three, with the bottles selling for $11,000 and the toy soldiers for $18,000.

One in ten 'harmed in hospital'

Some adverse events are avoidable

Almost 70,000 patients a year die partly as a result of "adverse events" they suffer during hospital stays, says a shocking report.

One in ten of all patients admitted to hospital is harmed by complications, half caused by medical mistakes of some kind.

The cost of the extra days in hospital needed is running to at least £1bn a year, said the research team from University College London.

Medical mistakes: the consequences

53-year-old man admitted for leg ulcer treatment

Failure to do this properly led to bone damage, requiring double amputation below the knee

In addition, incorrect management of urinary catheter left him with dying flesh on the end of his penis

A second catheter site became infected

He stayed an extra 26 days in hospital

The survey, published in the British Medical Journal, is the first which confirms the high level of damaging mistakes in UK hospitals.

A leading doctor said that the profession was failing to "learn from its mistakes".

The study looked at more than 1,000 medical and nursing records at two hospitals in London, then expanded these results to produce national predictions.

Researchers found that almost 11% of patients had suffered some sort of adverse event - some more than one.

In approximately 50%, the researchers judged that hospital staff should have prevented them happening.

Contributing to death

A third of the events led to "moderate or greater impairment" - in 19% of cases, the decline in their health as a result was permanent, and in 6%, the adverse event contributed to death.

The figures contained in the report were first aired last year by the Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson, but have now been published in full in the British Medical Journal.

Professor Sir George Alberti, president of the Royal College of Physicians, wrote in an accompanying editorial that the "blame culture" in society put doctors and nurses off admitting mistakes.

He said: "If we are to learn from mistakes then we need to know about as many as possible so that corrective action can be taken.

"The main causes of adverse events relate to operative errors, drugs, medical procedures and diagnosis. Each of these is amenable to prevention."

However, he also admitted that mistakes were inevitable because there were too few medical staff, who were forced to work too quickly to cope with intense demand.

It's still the case that nobody knows exactly how many of these events are happening in UK hospitals each year campaigner Marcus Ward, from the campaigning group Action for Victims of Medical Accidents said that the high numbers of adverse events revealed by the report was unsurprising.

He told BBC News Online: "It's still the case that nobody knows exactly how many of these events are happening in UK hospitals each year.

"This study only covered two hospitals, so their figure is only an estimate.

"The Department of Health should be funding the collection of more data."

The issue of medical mistakes has been highlighted recently by cases in which wrongly administered drugs killed two patients, and a three-year-old girl died after being given nitrous oxide gas instead of oxygen.

The author of the report, Professor Charles Vincent, said: "Adverse events are a major source of harm to patients and a major drain on NHS resources.

"Whether they are major events that are traumatic for staff and patients alike, or minor events that are frequent but go unnoticed in routine clinical care, together they have massive economic consequences for the provision of healthcare to use all."

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BUSINESS

May 15, 2001

HANGER ORTHOPEDIC GROUP INC (HGR)

Quarterly Report (SEC form 10-Q)

Item 2: Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth for the periods indicated certain items of the Company's Statements of Income and their percentage of the Company's net sales:

Three Months

Ended March 31,

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2001 2000

Net sales 100.0% 100.0%

Cost of products and services sold 52.2 49.8

Gross profit 47.8 50.2

Selling, general & administrative

expenses 36.8 34.1

Depreciation and amortization 2.5 2.4

Amortization of excess cost over net

assets acquired 2.5 2.6

Restructuring and Integration costs -- 0.5

Income from operations 6.0 10.6

Interest expense, net 10.2 9.7

Provision for income taxes (4.2) 1.2

Net income (loss) 0.1 (0.2)

Three Months Ended March 31, 2001 Compared to the Three Months Ended March 31,

Net Sales

Net sales for the quarter ended March 31, 2001, were approximately $120.6 million, an increase of approximately $5.7 million, or 5.0%, over net sales ofapproximately $114.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2000. Contributing to the increase were (i) the acquisitions completed during 2000 and (ii) a 4.3% increase in sales by patient care centers operating during both quarters ("same store sales").

Gross Profit

Gross profit in the quarter ended March 31, 2001 was approximately $57.6 million, a decrease of approximately $0.1 million, or 0.1%, from gross profit of approximately $57.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2000. The decrease was primarily attributable to higher cost of materials and changes in the product mix. The higher costs of materials were offset by the increase in net sales. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales decreased to 47.8% in the first quarter of 2001 from 50.2% in the first quarter of 2000.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses in the quarter ended March 31, 2001 increased by $5.1 million, or 13.1%, compared to the quarter ended March 31, 2000. Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of net sales increased to 36.8% in the first quarter of 2001 compared to 34.1% for same period in 2000. The increase in selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily the result of an increase in the bad debt expense, higher rent, and costs associated with the implementation of the Jay Alix initiatives.

Income from Operations

Principally as a result of the above, income from operations in the quarter ended March 31, 2001 was approximately $7.2 million, a decrease of $5.0 million, or 41.1%, below the prior year's comparable quarter. Income from operations as a percentage of net sales decreased to 6.0% in the first quarter of 2001 from 10.6% for the prior year's comparable period.

Interest Expense, Net

Net interest expense in the first quarter of 2001 was approximately $12.3 million, an increase of approximately $1.1 million over the approximately $11.2 million incurred in the first quarter of 2000. Interest expense as a percentage of net sales increased to 10.2% from 9.7% for the same period a year ago. The increase in interest expense was primarily attributable to a $1.1 million increase in borrowings and a 50 basis point increase in the London Interbank Offering Rate ("LIBOR") Adder due to the March 29, 2000 Amendment to the Credit Agreement.

Income Taxes

The Company's effective tax rate was 102.7% in the first quarter of 2001 versus 126.4% in 2000. The Company's calculation of its effective tax rate is based on its projected annual earnings as adjusted for non-deductible items. The decrease in the effective tax rate in the first quarter of 2001 versus 2000 is the result of the decrease in projected annual earnings in relation to nondeductible items, primarily attributable to the July 1, 1999 acquisition of NovaCare O&P. The benefit for income taxes in the first quarter of 2001 was approximately $5.1 million compared to the provision of $1.3 million for the first quarter of 2000.

Net Income (Loss)

As a result of the above, the Company recorded net income of $0.1 million, or $.06 loss per dilutive common share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2001, compared to a net loss of $0.3 million, or $.07 per dilutive common share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2000.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash flow provided by operating activities during the first three months of 2001 approximated $5.6 million, an increase of $0.4 million from the same period during 2000 level of cash flow provided by operating activities of $5.2 million. The increase resulted from net income and the higher non-cash adjustment to net income in the first quarter of 2001 over the prior year's comparable quarter. Cash earnings, defined as Adjusted EBITDA less interest expense, restructuring and integration costs and current income tax expense, increased approximately $0.7 million from $5.4 million in 2000 to $6.1 million in 2001.

The Company's consolidated liquidity position (comprised of cash and cash equivalents and unused credit facilities) approximated $25.6 million at March 31, 2001 compared to approximately $36.0 million at December 31, 2000. Consolidated working capital at March 31, 2001 was approximately $124.1 million compared to the December 31, 2000 level of $133.7 million.

The Company's total long term debt at March 31, 2001, including a current portion of approximately $33.5 million, was approximately $448.0 million. Such indebtedness included: (i) $150.0 million of 11.25% million Senior Subordinated Notes due 2009; (ii) $84.7 million for the Revolving Credit Facility; (iii) $85.0 million for Tranche A Term Facility; (iv) $98.8 million for Tranche B Term Facility; and (v) a total of $29.5 million of other indebtedness. The Revolving Credit Facility, and the Tranche A and B Term Facilities (the "Credit Facility") were entered into with The Chase Manhattan Bank, Bankers Trust Company, Paribas and certain other banks (the "Banks") in connection with the Company's acquisition of NovaCare O&P, Inc. on July 1, 1999. The Revolving Credit Facility matures on July 1, 2005; the Tranche A Term Facility is payable in quarterly installments of $5.0 million through July 1, 2005; and the Tranche B Term Facility is payable in quarterly installments of $250.0 through December 31, 2004 and in quarterly installments of $15.8 million through January 1, 2007.

The Credit Facility contains certain affirmative and negative covenants customary in an agreement of this nature. At December 31, 2000, the Company was not in compliance with the financial covenants under the Credit Agreement for interest coverage and leverage coverage. In consideration for the bank's waiver of the Company's non-compliance with these covenants, an amendment to the amended and restated Credit Agreement dated as of March 16, 2001 was entered into which provides for an increase in the interest rates of the Credit Facility borrowings by 50 basis points. As of March 31, 2001, the Company was in compliance with all of its financial covenants.

Matters critical to the Company's compliance with the Credit Facility's covenants, and ultimately its immediate term liquidity (to the extent alternative sources of liquidity are not readily available), include improving operating results, through revenue growth and cost control, and reducing the Company's investment in working capital. As previously discussed, the Company has retained the services of Jay Alix & Associates to assist in identifying programs aimed at achieving these objectives. The Company's ability to continue to comply with the Credit Facility covenants is dependent on certain factors, including (a) the ability of the Company to effect the restructuring initiatives referred to above, and (b) the Company's ability to continue to attract and retain experienced management and O&P practitioners. Unexpected increases in the LIBOR rate could also adversely impact the Company's ability to comply with the Credit Facility's covenants. Management believes that the Company will continue to comply with the terms of the Credit Facility and that the Company's consolidated liquidity position is adequate to meet its short term and long term obligations.

The Credit Facility is collateralized by substantially all of the Company's assets, restricts the payment of dividends and restricts the Company from pursuing acquisition opportunities for the calendar year 2001.

All or any portion of outstanding loans under the Credit Facility may be repaid at any time and commitments may be terminated in whole or in part at our option without premium or penalty, except that LIBOR-based loans may only be repaid at the end of the applicable interest period. Mandatory prepayments will be required in the event of certain sales of assets, debt or equity financings and under certain other circumstances.

The $60.0 million outstanding shares of 7% Redeemable Preferred Stock are convertible into shares of the Company's non-voting common stock at a price of $16.50 per share, subject to adjustment. The Company is entitled to require that the 7% Redeemable Preferred Stock be converted into non-voting common stock on and after July 2, 2002, if the average closing price of the common stock for 20 consecutive trading days is equal to or greater than 175% of the conversion price. The 7% Redeemable Preferred Stock will be mandatorily redeemable on July 1, 2010 at a redemption price equal to the liquidation preference plus all accrued and unpaid dividends. In the event of a change in control, the Company must offer to redeem all of the outstanding 7% Redeemable Preferred Stock at a redemption price equal to 101% of the sum of the per share liquidation preference thereof plus all accrued and unpaid dividends through the date of payment. The 7% Redeemable Preferred Stock accrues annual dividends, compounded quarterly, equal to 7%, and will not require principal payments prior to maturity on July 1, 2010.

Class Action

On November 28, 2000, a class action complaint (Norman Ottmann v. Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc., Ivan R. Sabel and Richard A. Stein; Civil Action No. 00CV3508) was filed against the Company in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of all purchasers of our common stock from November 8, 1999 through and including January 6, 2000. The complaint also names as defendants Ivan R. Sabel, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, and Richard A. Stein, former Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of the Company.

The complaint alleges that during the above period of time, the defendants violated Section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by, among other things, knowingly or recklessly making material misrepresentations concerning the Company's financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 1999, and the progress of the Company's efforts to integrate the recently-acquired operations of NovaCare O&P. The complaint further alleges that by making those material misrepresentations, the defendants artificially inflated the price of the Company's common stock. The plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all of the class members.

The Company believes that the allegations have absolutely no merit and plan to vigorously defend the lawsuit.

New Accounting Standards

In June 1998, the Financial Accounting Standard Board issued SFAS 133, "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities," which is effective for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2000. SFAS 133 requires that an entity recognize all derivative instruments as either assets or liabilities on its balance sheet at their fair value. Changes in the fair value of derivatives are recorded each period in current earnings or other comprehensive income, depending on whether a derivative is designated as part of a hedge transaction, and, if it is, the type of hedge transaction. The Company has adopted SFAS 133 as of January 1, 2001. As of March 31, 2001, the Company did not have any derivative instruments within the scope of SFAS 133. As such, the adoption does not have a material effect on the financial position or results of operation of the Company for the period ending March 31, 2001.

Other

Inflation has not had a significant effect on the Company's operations, as increased costs to the Company generally have been offset by increased prices of products and services sold. The Company primarily provides services and customized devices throughout the United States and is reimbursed, in large part, by the patients' third-party insurers or governmentally funded health insurance programs. The ability of the Company's debtors to meet their obligations is principally dependent upon the financial stability of the insurers of the Company's patients and future legislation and regulatory actions.

Forward Looking Statements

This report contains forward-looking statements setting forth the Company's beliefs or expectations relating to future revenues. Actual results may differ materially from projected or expected results due to changes in the demand for the Company's O&P services and products, uncertainties relating to the results of operations or recently acquired and newly acquired O&P patient care practices, the Company's ability to successfully integrate the operations of NovaCare O&P and to attract and retain qualified O&P practitioners, governmental policies affecting O&P operations and other risks and uncertainties affecting the health-care industry generally. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to up-date publicly these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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AROUND THE WORLD

Sharia: Two To Be Amputated For Stealing Donkeys

Lagos

A Sharia Court in Katsina State has found two men guilty of stealing nine donkeys and decreed the amputation of their hands.

The two accused whose names were given as Sale Abdulai and Isyaku were found guilty by Khadi Mustapha Darma after prosecutor Mallam Ibrahim Adamu told the court that they stole nine donkeys sometimes this year at Batsari. The court was told that four of the stolen donkeys had been killed by the accused persons.

They were said to have been reported to the police after which they were arrested.

When the two accused appeared before the court, they admitted stealing the donkeys and begged for forgiveness.

After reviewing the case, the judge said with the totality of evidence before him, the accused have been found guilty and they would be punished by amputating their hands for the alleged offence.

He said there was no other punishment that can be imposed on them as Sharia follows Koran in its judgment.

However, the case file had been sent to the state Sharia commission after which it would be sent to the state governor for approval.

The hands of the two accused would be amputated if the governor approved the judgment of the Sharia court.

Copyright © 2001 This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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Intifadah toll: disabilities at alarming rate

Blindness, paralysis the cost of 'eye for eye'

By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff, 5/3/2001

AZA - The X-rays of 16-year-old Mahmoud Sarham's spine show exactly where the Israeli sniper's high-velocity bullet entered his neck, tumbled, and fragmented, severing his spine between the first and second thoracic vertebrae.

Sarham lay in Gaza's El Wafa Rehabilitation Center last week, unable to lift his head from the pillow. Both legs are paralyzed. He is incontinent. He has some slight ability to move his left arm, and he feebly tried to show how he had twirled a leather sling to hurl stones at Israeli troops stationed near his home before he was shot.

"I was good," said Sarham, the sparkle of teenage bravado somehow not yet drained from his eyes by the pain of the injuries he suffered 11 weeks ago.

Behind the steadily mounting death toll in the Palestinian intifadah, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, there lies another staggering statistic of suffering: the number of permanently disabled.

Of the estimated 13,000 Palestinians injured in the seven-month spiral of violence, an estimated 1,500 have suffered disabling wounds, according to the Health, Development, Information, and Policy Institute, a Palestinian public health research organization based in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Twenty percent of the 13,000 injured were shot with live ammunition, mostly the high-velocity, full-jacketed bullets from M-16 rifles, which have been criticized internationally because of the extensive injuries they cause. Many will never walk again. The luckier ones will limp.

About 40 percent were hit by so-called rubber bullets, steel pellets coated in hard plastic, which can be lethal at close range. Many have suffered mental disabilities from head wounds caused by the rubber bullets. The other 40 percent were wounded by tear gas, shrapnel, and stun grenades.

In a land where the biblical call of ''an eye for an eye'' is practiced daily by Israelis and Palestinians, a lot of people are losing eyes. Some 200 victims of rubber bullets have been treated at St. John's Eye Hospital in East Jerusalem. At least 25 victims have lost eyes, said the hospital's director, Dr. Tim Lavy.

Lavy said he personally removed seven eyes in one day, adding that the hospital is ''grossly understaffed.'' The most recent victim was a 4-year-old girl from Bethlehem, who lost her right eye during a gun battle near her home.

A 24-year-old Hebron man who lost his left eye in 1990, during the first intifadah, lost 65 percent of his sight in the right eye in October, Lavy said.

About three-quarters of the disabling injuries occurred in the first two months of the intifadah. Now, a grim reality has set in, as patients seek help at inadequate and overcrowded medical facilities in the West Bank and Gaza.

The most acute need is physical rehabilitation, according to a study released this month by Bir Zeit University near Ramallah. For Gaza's population of 1 million, of whom 3,000 have been seriously injured in the intifadah, there are only two professionally trained rehabilitation specialists.

Hundreds go without proper rehabilitation, not only because of inadequate facilities, but also because Israeli blockades around Gaza and the West Bank often cut off patients from health care, the study found.

At least 438 Palestinians, including 13 who were Israeli citizens, have been killed in the intifadah, along with 72 Israelis.

By April 15, 855 Israelis had been injured, according to the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem. Of those, 66 were moderate to severe injuries; the rest, light injuries.

While there are no statistics on how many Israelis have been permanently disabled, one of the most searing cases occurred on Nov. 20, when a roadside bomb tore through a bus carrying children to school from a Jewish settlement in Gaza. Shrapnel killed two people and injured nine, including three childrem from one family. Orit Cohen, 12, had her right foot severed. Her sister, Talia, 8, lost both legs, and a brother, Yisrael, 7, lost his right leg.

The young Israeli victims will also face the pain and suffering and the long process of physical rehabilitation, but they will not have the added burden of inadequate medical and rehabilitation services.

The children's father, Ophir Cohen, 33, said the family has temporarily relocated to Jerusalem to be closer to a world-class rehabilitation center, where the children are still undergoing surgery and will eventually be fitted for prostheses. But Cohen said the family will return to live in the settlement of Kfar Darom in Gaza.

Human rights groups have condemned the Palestinian Authority for failing to prevent bombings, such as the attack on the school bus, and for failing to stop Palestinian gunmen from shooting at Israeli forces when Palestinian civilians, including youths throwing stones, are present.

Colonel Daniel Reisner, head of the Israel Defense Forces international law department, said in an interview that: ''Any injury to children is abhorrent, and, aside from that, it doesn't look good. ... The situation the Palestinians have put us in is not an easy one.''

But the same human rights groups that have criticized the Palestinian Authority have condemned what they see as Israel's excessive use of force in firing live ammunition when soldiers' lives are not in danger and for shooting indiscriminately at stone throwers.

The Boston-based Physicians for Human Rights completed an extensive report in November, and Dr. Robert Kirschner, the team's forensic pathologist, said: ''We found a deliberate policy by the IDF of shooting people to maim them. And now that policy has wrought a nightmare of rehabilitation. The amount of cases would tax our system in America, never mind in Gaza.''

Kirschner said the high rate of crippling injuries is due in part to Israel's use of the American-designed M-16 assault rifle. Because of the damage it does, use of the weapon for crowd control has been criticized by groups including the International Red Cross and the government of Switzerland, which called for an international ban on M-16 ammunition. After entering the body, the bullet's metal jacket often fragments and then the bullet tumbles, causing complex fractures and severe muscle and nerve damage.

At the El Wafa Rehabilitation Center, Dr. Ibrahim Gazal, the director, held up to the light X-rays of a dozen of his young patients, all of them paralyzed. Each one showed a ''lead storm,'' a spray of bullet fragments that tore through bodies, lodging around vital organs and in many cases damaging the spinal column, in one case causing brain damage.

The grimy ward's eight beds were full last week with young victims. Flies buzzed around plates of half-eaten food. Palestinian television blaring a ''martyr's'' funeral competed with sounds of construction on a new wing, which will add a dozen beds.

Slurring his words and barely audible, 16-year-old Sarham said, ''If I can walk again, I will go back'' to throw stones at Israeli soldiers.

But Dr. Nim'r Daloul stood over him and said flatly: ''He will never walk again. Never.''

Daloul assumed that his patient did not understand English, but the boy understood the word ''never.'' And something, perhaps hope, washed from his eyes as he stared straight ahead, despondent. Daloul tried to comfort him.

"These young people are not facing their own grief,'' said Dr. Eyad Sarraj, director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, which provides counselors to work with the youths. ''When they do, they are going to be very angry, and where that anger will go, how it will come out, is a big question.''

Sarraj suggested that the long process of recovery facing the youths reflects the collective process of recovery ahead for the Palestinians, who have seen their society and economy crippled and their hopes maimed.

"Everyone is in Gaza is in as much denial as these kids,'' he said.

Charles M. Sennott can be reached by e-mail at sennott@globe.com.

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 5/3/2001.

© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

Tyler woman indicted on charges of capital murder

A 30-year-old Tyler woman is accused of capital murder in the fatal stabbing of a disabled man, who was the father of an appeals court judge.

Monica Gelene Wilson was indicted Monday in the death of 79-year-old Jack Lee Griffith.

State District Judge Diane DeVasto set bond at $250,000.

Wilson told authorities she stabbed Griffith at his south Tyler apartment on July 15 after he refused to give her $200, according to the arrest affidavit.

Griffith, the father of 12th Court of Appeals Judge Sam Griffith, was reportedly stabbed multiple times. Jack Griffith was an amputee who also suffered from prostate cancer. He and Wilson were acquaintances, police said.

Wilson told authorities that after she stabbed Griffith, she went to the bathroom area, cleaned up and washed the blood off. She then stole the victim's checkbook, billfold and car keys.

Authorities said she cashed a stolen check at a nearby bank before returning to the murder scene to retrieve the murder weapon.

Wilson's blood was found at the scene, linking her to the crime, police public information officer Chris Moore told the Tyler Morning Telegraph in Tuesday's edition.

Wilson was arrested in March while in jail for the botched robbery of the Key Food Conoco Store on Oct. 16.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Angolan children relive raid

ADPP cares for war refugee children

By Justin Pearce in Luanda

Maionga Isaura believes that her artificial leg is what saved her from being captured by Angolan gunmen who invaded her school on Saturday.

Sixty children, most of them war refugees from all over the country, are still missing after being abducted by Unita rebels.

Maionga Isaura believes she was spared because of her artificial leg

The 18-year-old has worn the prosthetic leg since she was eight years old and can walk without difficulty. She says that she cannot remember how she lost her leg - though it is likely to have been in a landmine explosion. When the Unita soldiers arrived in the small hours of Saturday morning she showed them the artificial limb and pretended that she had trouble walking.

It was a nurse who suggested this and the trick saved her, but she now fears for the lives of her friends whom she watched being led away.

Sixty kidnapped

The rebels left her alone, but 60 of Maionga's fellow pupils, most of them orphans and war refugees from all over Angola, were rounded up and taken away by the rebels, and their whereabouts is still unknown.

Maionga described how late that night she was walking between two of the buildings in the school compound when she saw two men in uniform. At first she thought they were policemen, until they started firing shots in the air. More armed men then arrived - Maionga thinks there were about 50 of them in all. The children locked themselves in their dormitories, but when the soldiers started banging on the doors, the children opened up, fearing they would be shot if they resisted.

Packhorses

Maionga told how rebels took clothes and bedding from the dormitories before marching the children to a storeroom, where the men helped themselves to supplies of food. The older children were forced to carry sacks of food weighing up to 50kg.

Meanwhile, the organisation that runs the school, People to People Development Aid (ADPP) have been compiling a list of the abducted children to help them in the search. Nineteen of the missing children are less than 14 years old - some of them as young as 10.

The raid happened at the same time as an attack on the town of Caxito, in which more than 70 people were killed.

Caxito is less than 80km from the Angolan capital Luanda and the attack suggests that the rebels are able to mobilise closer to the capital than was previously thought.

First Amputation On Panda

Surgeons in China have carried out the first amputation on a limb of a giant panda.

The panda a two-year-old female called Dai Li had been badly injured in an attack by another animal.

Vets were alerted to the panda's plight by farmers from the Sichuan Natural Reserve and they decided the panda's life could only be saved by the loss of the limb. Dai Li was held under observation for over six weeks before being returned to a wildlife reserve. Only one-thousand pandas remain in the wild.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

GENERAL DISABILITY NEWS

Supreme Court Agrees to Review 2 Disability Cases

Toyota and US Airways Seek To Overturn Rulings for Injured

By Charles Lane

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 17, 2001; Page A03

The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide a pair of cases about the scope of the decade-old law protecting the disabled from job discrimination.

The cases address the issues of when a disability is severe enough to allow workers to sue their employers and how the rights of disabled workers should be balanced against those of other employees.

The first case deals with whether an impairment that prevents a worker from doing certain tasks in a particular job counts as a disability entitling the employee to protection under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

The issue in the second case is whether an employer must accommodate a disabled employee by giving him or her a new job, even if another worker with greater seniority is entitled to the job.

The ADA gives physically or mentally impaired workers protection against job discrimination, including the right to sue in federal court if employers refuse to provide "reasonable accommodation" of their conditions. The law defines a disability as an impairment that "substantially limits one or more of the major life activities" of the person involved.

Over the last decade, the law has spawned thousands of lawsuits, and the justices recently acted to trim its application. They decided earlier this year that the Constitution's guarantee of sovereign immunity bars state employees from suing the states for damages under the ADA.

The two cases the court agreed yesterday to consider involve private-sector firms and their employees.

In the first, Ella Williams, an assembly line worker at a Toyota plant in Kentucky who developed crippling carpal tunnel syndrome, asserted that the firm fired her when she declined a different job that still called for some manual labor. She argues that her inability to do manual tasks is an impairment of a "major life activity" covered by the ADA.

Toyota countered that it has tried to accommodate Williams and that people should not be considered disabled under the law if they are unable to perform only parts of a job.

A lower federal court of appeals sided with Williams, setting the stage for Toyota's appeal to the Supreme Court.

In the second case, Robert Barnett, a US Airways employee, injured his back while working in a cargo job at the airline. He was reassigned to the mail room at his doctor's suggestion, but the company later told him he would have to give up the job to make room for another employee with more seniority, as required by company policy.

Barnett sued, claiming both that the company had failed to give him a reasonable accommodation, and that it had violated the ADA by not engaging in discussions with him about an alternative job.

US Airways won two lower federal court rulings, but a majority of the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately ruled that disabled workers seeking accommodation should have priority for jobs over more senior nondisabled workers.

After a hearing, the court is expected to hand down decisions by next year.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

National Disability Research Institute Opens April 26

A new national Disability Research Institute (DRI), funded by a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), officially will open April 26 at the University of Illinois.

The ribbon-cutting will come at the end of a day-long symposium on the institute's current research and future agenda.

The institute will serve, in effect, as Social Security's research arm in the area of disability, says Chrisann Schiro-Geist, the managing director of the institute, part of the UI's College of Applied Life Studies.

The agency will spend an estimated $90 billion this fiscal year through its disability programs, providing income support for about 10 million people, but it lacks a research base for dealing with numerous issues.

The institute will build on the cornerstone of SSA support, seeking grants and partners for additional disability research in areas as diverse as health, economics and technology. Aiding in that effort will be high-level partners, on and off campus, from a wide range of disciplines.

According to Tanya Gallagher, dean of the College of Applied Life Studies and scientific director of the DRI, the new institute is another in a "long list of firsts where (the University of) Illinois has broken ground for the benefit of individuals with disabilities."

The UI was the first, Gallagher noted, to establish a comprehensive program for students with disabilities, in the late 1940s. It also has been a pioneer in offering wheelchair sports, a wheelchair accessible bus system and accommodations for building accessibility.

The SSA awarded the five-year, $5.25 million grant to establish the institute last May, as it sought to deal with a variety of administrative, policy and fiscal concerns.

Key among those is the definition of disability itself, said Schiro-Geist, a professor in the field of rehabilitation counseling. "What it is to be disabled in 2001 is very different from what it was to be disabled in 1954 (when Social Security's disability programs were established). You're talking about a half century of changes in technology, attitudes, etc."

A number of institutions and researchers already have signed on as partners in the Disability Research Institute's work. Three universities are serving as affiliate partners in the SSA grant: the University of Chicago, Northwestern and Rutgers universities. Other schools involved include the UI at Chicago, Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and the University of Wisconsin at Stout.

Participating units on the UI campus include the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations, the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and the Office of Continuing Education.

10-Apr-2001

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WHY A CORRECTED DISABILITY SHOULD STILL COUNT AS A DISABILITY FOR PURPOSES OF EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION LAW

By SHERRY F. COLB

----

Wednesday, Mar. 14, 2001

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) is now considering a case, Dahill v. Boston Police Department, that requires it to interpret the term "qualified handicapped person," in the context of a Massachusetts state law banning employment discrimination against the handicapped.

The plaintiff, Richard Dahill, suffers from a severe hearing impairment, but his hearing is normal when he wears a hearing aid. Dahill completed the twenty-six-week course for becoming a police officer at the Boston Police Academy, but the Department nevertheless dismissed him, because of his hearing impairment.

Dahill sued the Department in federal district court, bringing claims under both the state employment discrimination law and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Police Department countered his state law claim by arguing that Massachusetts' anti-discrimination law does not apply to people like Dahill, whose disabilities are subject to correction with devices or medication.

Federal Judge Douglas P. Woodlock then "certified" to the SJC the question of whether a person whose disability is corrected by a device or by medication qualifies as a "handicapped person" under Massachusetts law. (Under the certification procedure, a federal court faced with a novel question of state law may, before proceeding with the case, ask the state's highest court to provide a definitive answer to the state law question.)

a Disability Law Catch-22?

The position that correctable disabilities are not disabilities has something of a Catch-22 quality to it: Dahill would be damned if hearing aids didn't exist, and he is also damned, according to the Department, if they do.

If hearing aids did not exist, Dahill almost certainly could not work as a police officer. While he would count as a "handicapped person" under state anti-discrimination law, he would probably not count as "qualified" &emdash; for hearing is arguably essential to the job of a police officer.

Yet because hearing aids do exist, and render Dahill "qualified," the Police Department argues that Dahill is no longer a "handicapped person" under state anti-discrimination law. Ironically, according to the Department, the very capability that makes Dahill "qualified" ensures that he is no longer "handicapped," for purposes of the law, and that he may therefore be fired with impunity.

As odd as this position might sound, the United States Supreme Court adopted it when it interpreted the ADA in the 1999 case of Sutton v. United Airlines. While that case, which interpreted federal law, is not binding on Massachusetts, the Boston Police Department has invited Massachusetts' highest court to follow the logic of the nation's highest court in interpreting its own analogous state law provision.

The Case In Which the U.S. Supreme Court Accepted the Catch-22

In Sutton, United Airlines refused to hire two women as global pilots because they wore glasses. The women brought suit, arguing that with corrective lenses, their eyesight did not hinder their ability to pilot a plane. The Supreme Court decided that precisely because their glasses corrected their vision, the plaintiffs were not "disabled" under the ADA and could therefore legally be refused employment on the basis of their need for glasses.

These cases about federal and state disability law raise the question of what anti-discrimination statutes ought to be about. If the idea is to prohibit arbitrary employment decisions based upon irrational prejudice, then the pilots in Sutton surely ought to have prevailed, as should Richard Dahill. Arbitrary prejudice alone, however, is not the target of most anti-discrimination laws; they target a particular irrational prejudice: the belief that a disabled person (or a member of some other protected class) is inherently unqualified for a given job.

"At will" employment &emdash; the norm for employees who do not work under a contract guaranteeing that they can only be fired for cause &emdash; provides that an employer may hire or fire an employee for any reason, however wrong or misguided, with one exception. Even if employment is "at will," an employer may not make hiring or firing decisions on a basis prohibited by state or federal anti-discrimination law. Disability represents one such prohibited basis.

An employer thus may fire an employee because she wears blue shoes, has a short boyfriend, or grew up in the suburbs &emdash; even though none of these facts would diminish her ability to perform the job. An employer may not, however, fire an employee because she is disabled.

In short, it is not the case that all irrational prejudice in employment decisions violates the law. Indeed, most do not. That is why there is some truth to the claims of various conservatives that if a group acquires legal protection against discrimination, it acquires a "special right" that other groups (such as people who are tall or people who play musical instruments) do not have. Such rights must be justified not just by unfairness &emdash; for all irrational prejudice is unfair &emdash; but by patterns of discrimination.

Idiosyncratic versus Systematic Discrimination

One difference between the blue-shoe-wearing employee and the disabled employee is that the latter is part of a class of people who &emdash; like racial minorities, women, and members of disfavored religious groups &emdash; suffer systematic harm at the hands of other people who wrongly assume that they cannot or should not do certain jobs. The disabled employee labors under two distinct burdens: the impairment itself and the prejudice of a society that marginalizes him.

Does a nearsighted pilot who can just put on a pair of glasses or contact lenses suffer these burdens? Perhaps not. There is arguably no systematic discrimination against people with glasses. And if that is true, if the pilot is fired, she can easily acquire a job from a more rational employer elsewhere. She suffers neither the burden of a disability (which is correctable) nor that of systematic prejudice.

Discrimination and Treatable Conditions

Is a person who wears a hearing aid, who would otherwise be deaf, similarly free from systematic discrimination? More generally, are people who suffer from treatable conditions such as HIV, epilepsy, or mental illness, free from such discrimination? The answer is no, because of the continuing effects of stigma.

My mother's experience testifies to the power of stigma. She is hard of hearing, to a disabling degree. But it has taken her years even to consider wearing a hearing aid, and she has explained that this is in part because she did not want to think of herself as someone who wears a hearing aid. Rather than see herself that way, she preferred to struggle with every conversation and try to guess what people were saying. She was attempting to avoid a stigma &emdash; in this case, the stigma associated with wearing a hearing aid, with its connotations of aging and disability.

Such a stigma persists, as well, for those who struggle with HIV, epilepsy, and mental illness, notwithstanding the medications and therapy that make the struggle possible. The stigma is one of the reasons persons with such conditions want to keep them private. People who wear glasses or contact lenses do not generally suffer from a similar stigma &emdash; and thus may generally fall outside the class of "disabled" or "handicapped" individuals. However, in particular industries (flight, where 20-20 vision or better is especially prized and valued, may be one of them), stigma may still exist.

What about Richard Dahill? He may regularly encounter people who marginalize him and assume he is incompetent, because of his hearing aid or because of the hearing impairment that, by wearing the aid, he is forced to reveal publicly.

The Boston Police Department might have assumed that a person with a hearing aid could not do his job. That type of assumption plagues many others with disabilities, even those disabilities that are correctable &emdash; and often in part because the corrections call attention to the disabilities. It would be perverse, of course, to punish a person who has chosen to correct his disability by consequently declaring him fair game to being fired because of it.

Employers' often wrongheaded and unwarranted assumption of incompetence based on disability only becomes even more wrongheaded, and more utterly unwarranted, when that disability is corrected &emdash; yet prejudice remains. And the qualities of the prejudice against corrected and uncorrected disability are the same: it is not only irrational but it is also, and crucially, systematic.

Accordingly, firing someone with a hearing aid is much closer to firing a deaf person than to firing someone who happens to wear blue shoes. The blue-shoe-wearer is the victim of idiosyncratic prejudice alone.

For these reasons, Sutton was wrongly decided, and the Massachusetts high court should steer clear of following its lead in interpreting its own anti-discrimination law in Dahill.

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ENTERTAINMENT

More sick pet tricks, cruel jokes, har har

Review: 'Say It Isn't So' isn't so funny

March 23, 2001

By Paul Tatara

CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- The official Web site for J.B. Rogers' "Say It Isn't So" tells us it's a "comically depraved spin on a classic love story," which is another way of saying it's supposed to be funny simply because it's rude. If only it were that easy.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly - brothers who have gotten more than enough mileage out of having written and directed the intermittently amusing "There's Something About Mary" (1998) -- produced this one.

In fact, there are so many similarities between the two movies, the Farrellys could conceivably sue their own writers for plagiarism.

Chris Klein plays Gilly Noble, a sweet young guy who works at an animal shelter. This gives screenwriters Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow a reason to make road-kill jokes ... and apply the Farrelly law that says unfortunate things happening to animals is a key element of American humor. (A later incident, in which Gilly gets his arm stuck inside a cow's rectum, has nothing to do with his line of work, but so what?)

Gilly professes to be a romantic who's looking for the right girl. One day, he thinks he finds her, in the person of sexy hairdresser Jo Wingfield (Heather Graham, playing an over-ripe variation on Cameron Diaz of "Mary" fame). When Jo is cutting Gilly's hair, she accidentally snips off one of his ears. You get to see it happen in close-up, just like the mangled penis gag in "There's Something About Mary."

Gilly and Jo hit it off despite the mutilation, so she invites him to a home-cooked dinner with her family.

Jo's mom, Valdine (Sally Field), is gutter-mouthed trash who constantly belittles her stroke-victim husband, Walter (Richard Jenkins). Careful readers may note that having a stroke victim to beat up and mock is reminiscent of -- you guessed it -- "There's Something About Mary," in which Diaz is blessed with a mentally challenged kid brother who takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Walter is confined to a wheelchair, and has to talk through a speaker that he wears around his throat. Apparently, it's the next best thing to Mark Twain when you curse through an amplifier that makes you sound like a robot. Roughly dropping paralyzed people to the floor is also good for a chuckle. And don't forget to yell at each other. Anger and disdain are really just jokes disguised as hurtfulness.

Gilly can't believe what he's gotten himself into, but he's still falling for Jo. The two are soon locked in bouts of passionate sex, but the fun stops when they discover that they're actually brother and sister!

Plot thickens, logic thins

Gilly is an orphan, you see, and it's been determined that Valdine and Walter are his long-lost parents. The accidental incest angle is so vulgar you just have to laugh -- unless, of course, you recognize it as a mistake that's not even remotely funny.

Time passes. One day, Gilly is informed that Jo isn't really his sister, and he wants her back. But she's off in another town, where she's about to get married to a shady millionaire (Eddie Cibrian). So, much like Ben Stiller's character does in a movie that we've already mentioned, Gilly takes out after his true love. Along the way, he meets up with a pot-smoking, double-amputee airplane pilot (Orlando Jones) who's forever losing his plastic legs. At one point, you get to see his hilarious stumps!

It just keeps on like that until you're ready to scream. These aren't really jokes in the sense that something funny is happening. You're mostly expected to laugh at the idea that there are people who aren't laughing, which is just shallow and incredibly easy. All you have to do is look directly at a situation that most folks have the good manners to avoid blatantly sizing up, then treat it with the polar opposite of respect.

This is humor?

If an animal is involved, abuse it. If you're dealing with human beings, highlight their lack of class, mock any and all afflictions and rough them up as much as possible. If the person happens to be a large-breasted female, make sure she rips off her shirt at an inappropriate time, like in front of her parents and a shocked dinner guest.

And, most important, keep it coming at a steady clip. After all, the end result has to be long enough to play in theaters.

Next time, The Farrellys should just knock on doors and randomly wipe boogers on people's arms. It would make them look smarter and save everyone a lot of time and energy.

Of course your kids shouldn't see "Say It Isn't So" and that's exactly why they'll clamor for the opportunity. Tie them in a chair and show them a Marx Brothers movie instead. Rogers, by the way, has about as much flair for constructing a movie as your mom does. And Field should immediately remove the tarnish from her Oscars. Rated R. 98 minutes.

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