An article by Gareth
DISABILITY NOW ARTICLE 2007
As we all know travelling abroad when you are disabled is not always the easiest of things. There's the medical permission to travel and the notes to explain that your well enough to put yourself at risk from DVT as well as the possibility of a crash!
In my case I have to travel with a backpack full of nutritional fluid to stop me dehydrating on a flight. Suffering from Short Gut Syndrome I'm more at risk of dehydration (The more I drink, the more I dehydrate) so I've been fitted with a broviac catheter that goes to the main vein in my heart and helps pump my nutritional fluid around my body.
One year with money being tight I had to risk travel without insurance. This meant that whilst I was in OZ I was left to hope that if anything went wrong on a health level it was something like me getting run over, because that would be covered by the basic travel insurance I had.
In Hong Kong I presented myself at the check-in with my special medical pump, backpack and medical notes explaining my situation and condition. They seemed somewhat unsure of me, for the next hour and a half before my flight out of HK, they gave me my own armed guard. Now firstly, if I was a suicide bomber I doubt I would concoct such a cunning ruse in order to get on a plane with my bomb. Secondly, If I was a suicide bomber, what would giving me the armed guard actually do. Was he superhuman and of an invulnerable form? If he thought I was going to detonate what was he gonna do? Bear hug me and absorb the force of the blast? He was quite a jovial chap who spoke no English. He was ordered to take me onto the plane and be sure I was firmly ensconced before we took off. It was like the authorities in HK were saying, "We're not completely sure if you might be a suicide bomber, but if you are you can go about your business once you've fucked off out of our airspace!"
On my flight once hooked up to my backpack I decided to check that everything was OK with it. I should explain that when you open it what you actually see is a 2 and a half litre chamber of fluid, an electronic pump and some wires. I was sat next to a really rude, arrogant man who had behaved appallingly to other passengers and cabin staff. When he saw the inside of the backpack he freaked out, I'll be honest enough to say I checked it at least four times because I thought it was fucking funny. When he started crying I believe I added insult to injury by saying, "Don't worry mate….you'll see your friends on the other side!"