‘Extremely difficult’: Ontario man homeless after leg amputation – Toronto | 24CA News
Thomas Mohr has watched his life snowball into devastation during the last two years.
First, it was an accident that landed him within the hospital. Next, his leg was amputated after being contaminated with septic from that accident.
Finally, he misplaced his residence and is unable to return to work as a result of the province refuses to cowl the price of a prosthetic leg.
From working as a carpenter and business proprietor for 52 years, the 69-year-old now lives in his broken-down Dodge pickup truck in an Oakville buying plaza. He’s been there for 210 days. Mohr eats, sleeps and makes use of the washroom inside his automobile. When the car parking zone empties out at nightfall, he cleans himself with child wipes.
“It’s extremely inventive and extremely difficult,” Mohr mentioned.
“In the hospital, after the (amputation) surgery, you couldn’t move around either. And there were ways you can take care of yourself. I’ve just adapted that to this living condition.”
Mohr says in the midst of winter in January of 2022, he slipped on a chunk of ice exterior of his then residence in Bancroft, Ont. Everything was positive till he started to develop ache in his leg to the purpose the place it turned insufferable to stroll. Undergoing amputation on his leg was the one manner he would be capable to keep alive as a result of septic that had contaminated his decrease physique.
But simply when issues couldn’t get any worse after shedding his leg, he misplaced his residence.
“When I left the hospital, I came out and my property up north, it had been taken through a sheriff’s seizure to settle a family debt.”
Mohr is raring to return to work, however he was advised he wouldn’t be capable to get a prosthetic leg lined by the province as a result of distinctive dimension and form of the limb. It is wider on the base and tapers in the direction of the knee. The 69-year-old requires a customized prosthetic, which he says is barely accessible within the U.S. It has a price ticket of roughly $80,000 CAD.
“I was offered another operation to cut more of my leg,” he mentioned, including it wasn’t another he felt comfy with.
“I already went through this, I’m not going to go through that.”
Drew Cumpson, an advocate with the Ontario Health Coalition, says Mohr’s story is a first-rate instance of how Ontario’s well being system is failing some residents.
“Customization is a vital part of any assisted device… You can’t have a ‘one size fits all.’ We have so many different people in this world today. No two people are the same,” Cumpson mentioned.
“People are falling through the cracks everyday and they’re not getting the care they need in a timely manner.”
The province didn’t reply to Global News’ request for remark. However, on its web site it lists two varieties of prosthetic limbs which might be 75-per cent lined by way of the Assistive Devices Program.
But Mohr was advised he doesn’t qualify.
His family members are presently elevating cash for the personalized U.S. prosthetic, a working automobile and a spot the place he can get again on his ft.
Despite a devastating state of affairs, Mohr stays optimistic issues will finally take a flip for the higher.
“I wasn’t put on this planet to sit in a truck. I’ve contributed quite a bit and I still have a lot of contribution to give.”
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