Daredevil on wheels takes to the sky

Daredevil on wheels takes to the sky

Alan T. Brown’s mission to improve life in a wheelchair

by Andrea Freygang


Born and raised in New York City, Alan T. Brown was 20 when his life changed forever. Down in Martinique at Club Med, Brown went swimming, not knowing a storm was brewing in the water nearby where two oceans cross, creating unusually strong undertows. When the waves came in, he was caught in an undertow, flipped upside down and heard his neck snap. Instead of learning how to follow his Orthodox parents in the biggest mitzvah of preparing bodies for burial, Brown had to figure out how to live. Now 42, Brown has dedicated his life through his public relations and marketing skills to creating a better quality of life for people living with various spinal injuries through the Alan T. Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis. Brown, who spends his life in a wheelchair and has nine screws and two metal plates holding his head on his neck, says he never stopped working, starting with his foundation. Since the accident, Brown has married, had two kids and started his own public relations and marketing business stemming from his involvement with getting SlimFast started with celebrity endorsements. He has also worked with the Florida Marlins and has organized advertising campaigns for a number of celebrities

How did the foundation come about?
The foundation started six months after my injury. I started figuring how to get my life back together. It started off as looking for a cure, but went into outreach. You go into the hospital and help people realize there is life and everything will be ok. There are hundreds of them…and none of us ask and want our world turned upside down in ways you’d never believe.

“G-d did this for a reason and I have to carry out the mission—and not let the system take me down. It will not beat me.”

What is the focus of the foundation?
A lot of it in the beginning…was there was going to be a cure and we would get out of these things (wheelchairs), but you move beyond that. I think a cure will happen, but I don’t know about in my lifetime. I’ve had six surgeries, had to have my back fused, with two bolts and hinges holding my back together. But now it’s about a better quality of life.

How so?
I drive my own car, I skydive, scuba dive, go to the gym six days of the week, but many things I can’t do myself. I need help with everything—cutting food, pants, bathroom, hanging with my kids. But I am a whole person, and have achieved many of the goals I’ve set for myself. My main focus is whatever legislation and awareness (I can get). It’s all the same message—a cure is great, but quality of life is what needs to happen. G-d did this for a reason and I have to carry out the mission—and not let the system take me down. It will not beat me.

What needs to change?
Insurance. I had the same policy for 20 years and they switched it and I had to pay out of pocket. I need medicine, nursing care around the clock. Insurance says my wife should be my caregiver, but I can’t do that—we would be divorced. I had a new policy that included hospitalization and nursing homes only, but I’ve had friends die from that. You go there, you start to think you’re dead. We want to live—I trained to do two New York marathons. And they wouldn’t pay for supplies and gave me this huge, bulky wheelchair that cost $38,000 and I hated it. It made me feel my injury more and more. I found this I-Bot wheelchair that…can go on gravel. It’s actually an unbelievable device that made me not feel paralyzed anymore. I’m up (the chair allows him to stand) talking to people. In the PR business, you need face to face. It completely changed my life and I became a spokesperson, but they stopped production...because Medicaid and Medicare stopped paying.

So what is the next step for you?
I’ve been giving money for 20 years for a cure, but I want a roadmap to tell me and my friends how to survive. So I went to Christopher Reeves—we were friends— and told him they’re not producing this wheelchair anymore and we started a study to show that close to six million people have some disability related to paralysis and spinal cord. The cost is higher and higher, but the support in less and less. I’m going to Washington, D.C. to say why shouldn’t we be able to go to a friend’s house or go to a soccer game or shoot baskets and get up high, which that chair allowed me to do. When I went to Walter Reed (Veterans’ hospital) I saw things you wouldn’t believe. They’ll pay 80 million or billion to put a young kid into harm’s way, but they come home and can’t get a new $22,000 wheelchair.

How will you fix this?
I am on a mission right now, to share as much as I can that everyone in wheelchairs should get a fair shake. I don’t sleep well at night, but I gotta do this. I’ll keep popping into D.C. to get in faces till they understand. My mission is to make sure I take my PR expertise and sing this to everyone I can to raise awareness and get as many celebrities and athletes involved to do what I’ve got to do to make a difference, though I don’t feel like I’ve done even close to enough.

“My mission is to make sure I take my PR expertise and sing this to everyone I can to raise awareness and get as many celebrities and athletes involved to do
what I’ve got to do to make a difference.”

How has your Jewish faith helped?
I sometimes ask why, but my religion has kept me grounded. G-d did this for a reason so I’m just going to go with it. I thank G-d for people who help me, the people who are around that care for me. I take my whole background, growing up in an Orthodox Jewish home (since I) grew up to be somebody to help. It has helped since day one and a lot more now. There are a lot more people, a lot more problems and the system is harder and harder. But G-d gives me the strength to move forward to help these people and that’s what I’m going to do.

The Alan T. Brown Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation, established in 1988 to support scientific and medical research, and has recently focused on quality of life issues. The foundation regularly hosts events, primarily in New York, but Brown is based in Hollywood where he runs PrimeTime Public Relations & Marketing. Visit www.atbf.org for more information on the foundation and to find out about upcoming events or ways to get involved. Visit www.ptprm.com to learn more about Brown’s marketing company.

Paralyzed man leads charge for healthcare reform

BY SHANNON PEASE
Special to The Miami Herald
In pushing through the adversity of everyday life, Alan T. Brown wants to call attention to himself and more than a million others who live with spinal cord injuries.

His aim is to raise awareness of the prevalence of the condition and, ultimately, foster health reform.

His life changed forever on Jan. 2, 1988, when a simple act of floating in the surf in Martinique took a horrible turn. The undertow flipped the then-20-year-old over, smashing his head into the hard sand and leaving him paralyzed.

''Your life changes in one second,'' said Brown, now 42 and a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair.

''Your life changes the second you break your neck,'' said Brown, a Hollywood resident. ``And there is no road map.''

Since then, each day has been a new challenge for Brown, who is now married and has two sons. Medically, he has undergone six surgeries and has had nine screws and six plates inserted to fuse his head to his neck.

Financially, the cost of wheelchairs, healthcare and adapters for automobiles and other needs can be devastating.

''People don't realize, I don't wake up to an alarm clock every day. I wake up to a nurse,'' Brown said, adding that visiting-nurse expenses are not reimbursed by his private insurance policy, and are paid out of pocket.

According to a recent study initiated by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, about 1.3 Americans live with spinal cord injuries, a number five times higher than earlier estimated.

The study also found that six million people live with some sort of paralysis, which includes conditions such as stroke, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis.

''You are talking about a large population that was under-noticed,'' said Brown who stays active by working out at a gym and scuba diving.

His plan is to increase awareness and spur better funding for services and medical equipment necessary for everyday life. Brown said his insurance reimbursement for such necessities has decreased considerably over the years.

''I plan on doing whatever I have to do to let people know what we are going through and we need to get some help,'' Brown said. He said that includes a lack of insurance, services and community awareness.

Brown, who owns PrimeTime Public Relations & Marketing in Hollywood, has made frequent treks to Washington, D.C., where he has given a speech at a Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation event, attended media programs to discuss issues, and visited amputee veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

He has launched the Alan T. Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis, originally to find a cure, but now he said he has changed direction to focus on quality of life.

''It's getting harder and harder to live. I know the economy is bad, but this isn't the economy, this is our life,'' Brown said. ``We need to start coming together and organizing to get people to make a difference.''

Marketing executive makes a personal pitch for himself and others

Marketing executive makes a personal pitch for himself and others
South Florida Business Journal - by Jeff Zbar

Alan T. Brown has marketed Florida Marlins baseball and Slim-Fast. He launched Café Martorano in Las Vegas, and helped create sports radio station 790 The Ticket.

Now, he’s on a humanitarian mission to market a different product: Himself, and the millions of paraplegic and quadriplegic Americans who need better access to medical products and services.

Brown is using his marketing skills and connections to raise awareness of the conditions America’s disabled and wheelchair-bound individuals face each day. His effort includes pushing for improved funding for Medicaid and Medicare recipients, and helping veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan secure motorized wheelchairs.

It’s not easy, he said, and the number of Americans living with disabilities is growing. Some 1.27 million Americans live with spinal cord injury, and 5.6 million have some form of paralysis, according to a study from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

When these findings were released this spring in Washington, D.C., Brown was there to “put a face on paralysis,” he said. He visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in May with Dean Kamen, creator of the Segway, and helped arrange the donation of a motorized wheelchair to a returning veteran. He’ll go back in July to meet with the Reeve Foundation’s Paralysis Task Force.

It’s an issue that’s been part of Brown’s life since January 1988. Vacationing in Martinique, a wave’s undertow flipped Brown. The athletic, 21-year-old college student landed on his head, breaking his neck. He was left a quadriplegic.

Though confined to a wheelchair, his active pace continued. He twice completed the New York City Marathon. He’s scuba dived and skydived. Until recently, his days were long – in the office at PrimeTime Public Relations & Marketing before 8 a.m., and home to wife Susanne and their two boys after dark.

It’s not been without challenges, he said. Brown’s frenetic pace led to infection, common to the wheelchair-bound, 17 times in 2008. He battled his insurance company, which claimed Brown no longer needed a nurse, physical therapy or medical supplies.

“When people see people like me, they don’t realize what it takes to get from point A to point B,” he said.

Few who know Brown are surprised he’s taken to highlighting the plight of the disabled, said Lorne Fisher, CEO and managing partner with Fish Consulting, the Hollywood franchise marketing specialty firm where Brown has served as creative director since early 2008.

“Alan realizes there are so many people who are running into the same roadblocks in staying healthy and improving their lives,” said Fisher, whose office manager – Arno Bergara – is a paraplegic whom Brown encouraged to participate in marathons.

Brown’s decision to champion America’s disabled came last year. He had been using and promoting Johnson & Johnson’s iBot wheelchair since its debut four years earlier. Kamen developed the chair using technology from the Segway. In his iBot, Brown can climb stairs, travel through deep beach sand, and – most importantly to him – rise safely on two wheels to talk to people face to face.

But, although Brown bought his iBot, federal reimbursement caps the costs of durable medical supplies far below the iBot’s $22,000 price, he said. Johnson & Johnson ceased production earlier this year, Brown added.

“They’ll buy a guy arms and legs all day long,” he said. “This is my prosthetic device.”

He’s marshalling Kamen, the Reeve Foundation and other groups to “speak the same message” and build on his campaign to help people understand what the disabled endure. He’s helped garner TV reports and Associated Press articles. Newsweek is preparing a story, he said. He hopes to create “some sort of normalcy and fairness” for the disabled.

“This is about using my gift of gab to get as many people together on this subject as possible,” he said. “When I go to Washington, I’m not a lobbyist, I’m Alan Brown.”

Just Look Ahead.........

So this week was a tough week. I hurt my left arm and had my first bladder infection in 7 months. Between the pain and the antibiotics I was down most of the week dealing with the side effects, which are not fun by the way. I had to miss Max's year end awards because my body just would not go, as a father missing these milestones in my children's lives are very hard to swallow (it eats me up inside).

Today I was able to make it to Max's Lacrosse game in Boca, while I was at the game a young boy in a wheelchair wanted to check out my iBOT. I showed them all that it does and the boy kept saying he wanted one, the family was telling how much he misses because of his chairs limitations and how hard it is to look ahead. As we spoke the parents were telling me how the lack of help and restrictions the insurance company's put on them it is making it almost imposable to go forward.

Even though this week was a tough one for me, the ten minutes talking with this family made me put my week of frustration behind me and focus. I am just looking ahead and staying on track to make a difference. Here is video that The Alan T Brown Foundation received for the Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian award from the Metropolotain Golf Writers Association. I hope you watch it, we can never stop looking ahead.

Emerald Hills resident visits DC to lobby for disabled

The Hollywood Gazette
Written by Caron Conway
Tuesday, 02 June 2009 17:14
Alan T. Brown, Hollywood businessman, quadriplegic and tireless advocate for people affected by paralysis, is on a roll, in more ways than one.

The public relations and marketing firm owner, who has spent half of his 42 years confined to a wheelchair after breaking his neck in a swimming accident, is involved in a movement to push Capitol Hill lawmakers to make a revolutionary wheelchair accessible to wounded veterans and other non-ambulatory disabled Americans.

In May, Brown joined veterans groups and renowned inventor Dean Kamen at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference in Washington, D.C., urging Congress to pass legislation that would make the $22,000 iBOT computerized, mobilized wheelchair more affordable for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The high-tech wheelchair is the brainchild of Kamen, the inventor of the Segway Human Transporter and numerous innovative health-care devices, including the first wearable infusion pump. Unlike traditional wheelchairs, the iBOT’s self-balancing technology allows users to “stand” at eye-level with the ambulatory population and maneuver up and down stairs, over curbs and across difficult terrain.

But the iBOT’s high price tag and low insurance reimbursement – which over time dropped to about $2,000, the same as a typical wheelchair – placed the device out of reach for most individuals who could benefit from it and ultimately halted its production in January.

Kamen, Brown and other iBOT supporters are trying to convince lawmakers to restore a higher reimbursement in light of the iBOT’s life-changing advanced technology.

“When I got my iBOT, I actually felt like I had some of my paralysis taken away,” said Brown, who made the switch from a traditional wheelchair in 2005.

Despite being paralyzed from the chest down in January 1988 when a wave flipped him upside down in the surf off Martinique, Brown is a man on the move. In addition to running his Hollywood-based business, PrimeTime Public Relations & Marketing, he counts skydiving, scuba diving and completing two New York City Marathons among his accomplishments since the accident.

The Alan T Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis (ATBF), which Brown’s family established within a year after his injury, gave him a sense of purpose in the wake of personal tragedy. The not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization is dedicated to changing attitudes, routines and lives through guidance, example and research funding for spinal cord injuries, which affect an estimated 1.3 million Americans.

ATBF also provides “focus, hope and the spirit to move forward” to the spinally injured and their loved ones. The Outreach and Peer Mentoring Program offers telephone counseling and matches the newly injured with those who understand all too well the overwhelming challenges, changes and adjustment they face and the need to develop a level of independence.

Brown knows firsthand the independence that can be achieved “at wheelchair level” – especially from an iBOT wheelchair. He’s using his PR and marketing background to create a national awareness campaign to pressure lawmakers to raise the iBOT’s insurance reimbursement.

“They don’t understand what it’s like to live 24 hours a day in a wheelchair,” Brown said. “I’m going to put a face on that.”

In addition to the daily struggles that the wheelchair-bound face, Brown has endured six surgeries and last year alone battled 17 infections. But he is wholeheartedly committed to making the difficult journey a little easier to navigate for disabled veterans and others living with motor disabilities and paralysis.

“I believe that this happened to me for a reason,” Brown said. “God wanted me to be a messenger, to help as many people as I can.”

For more information on the Alan T Brown Foundation to Cure Paralysis, visit www.atbf.org.

This is from the press event at The National Press Club in DC discussing getting the iBOT manufatured again.

War Produces Medical Miracles: Who Gets To Use Them?

Here is a great interview with Dean Kamen and others discussing the iBOT on NPR

Questions from end of stair-climbing wheelchair

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Mon May 25, 12:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON – The nation's first stair-climbing wheelchair hit the market with a bang but disappeared with a whimper, a casualty of price that raises a big question: How much will society agree to pay for high-tech help for the disabled?

Johnson & Johnson quietly sold the last iBOTs this spring, shuttering manufacturing of a wheelchair that doctors had greeted five years ago as potentially revolutionary for the freedom of movement it promised — but which failed to sell more than a few hundred a year. Earlier this month, a veteran who lost his legs in Iraq received the last known available iBOT, donated after its initial owner died.

Now iBOT users who fear their chairs wearing out are joining high-profile inventor Dean Kamen — best known for his Segways — in lobbying Congress for reimbursement changes that they hope could revive a technology that left the market with a $22,000 price tag but that Medicare deemed worth about $6,000.

"If I ever had to get out of this chair, I really don't know if I'd want to live anymore, to be honest with you," says Alan T. Brown, 42, of Hollywood, Fla., who is mostly paralyzed from the chest down and on his second iBOT. "Guys in these chairs ... we might be disabled now, but then we'd really become disabled."

Price wasn't the only factor in the iBOT's demise. Only a small fraction of the paralyzed even were candidates because the high-tech chair required, among other things, use of at least one arm and certain upper-body control.

Still, disability specialists say the iBOT saga has ramifications beyond one gee-whiz but far-from-perfect wheelchair. It raises the issue of how the nation handles different kinds of medical equipment.

Take this example from Dr. Michael Boninger, who directs the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's rehabilitation institute: Medicare routinely pays tens of thousands of dollars for hip replacements to keep the elderly walking pain-free. But a 70-year-old who can't undergo that operation must become too impaired to easily care for herself at home before being approved for a basic electric wheelchair — when short stands in the kitchen are less of an issue than going to the grocery store, Boninger says.

Medicare says that's how Congress wrote its rules.

"The wheelchair is maybe the most enabling technology in medicine, period," Boninger says. "What it is, is discriminatory policy."

The iBOT episode also sends a cautionary signal about pricey innovation. New technology requires scientific evidence that it changes users' lives in ways existing alternatives cannot, says Henry Claypool, the new director of the federal Office on Disability, which advises the secretary of health and human services.

"Innovative technology should be treated as something we need to embrace when we really find it has a chance to advance a group's function and integration into the community," says Claypool, himself a wheelchair user.

Did the iBOT do that? It depends on who you ask.

The iBOT's wheels rotate up and over one another to go up and down steps, using gyroscopes that sense and adjust to a person's center of gravity. The Department of Veterans Affairs bought the chairs for a limited number of disabled soldiers.

Yet by the end of 2006, Medicare had concluded that the stair-climbing function and other features — lifting users to standing height and powering over uneven turf — weren't medically necessary for at-home care; it would pay only the basic electric wheelchair price. Medicare does provide far pricier wheelchairs, equipped for certain pressure-easing motions or to handle breathing equipment, when doctors deem them required.

J&J blamed reimbursement in part for lack of a "sustainable market," but pledged to provide iBOT users repair service through 2013.

"Giving people independence and access and freedom and technology ought to be something we do," says Kamen, who argues that an iBOT might save money on home modifications.

But today's emphasis is to expand access to health care rather than provide pricier improvements, cautions University of Michigan business professor Erik Gordon, who tracks J&J. He just heard the venture capitalists who fund device research warn industry that new designs must prove a better value than alternatives.

"To a certain extent, there are breakthroughs we just can't afford," Gordon says.

Gary Linfoot of Clarksville, Tenn., illustrates the pros and cons. The Army pilot was paralyzed in a helicopter crash in Iraq last year and found an iBOT through the nonprofit Huey 091 Foundation — but switches between it and his VA-provided manual wheelchair. The smaller, lightweight manual lets him drive a car, not a van, to Fort Campbell, where he now oversees an aquatic training facility. He installed an elevator in his house.

But he uses the iBOT at home, to reach high shelves or work under his car's hood. He also uses it to visit friends whose houses have a step or two that "may as well be Mount Everest," says Linfoot. "You don't understand all the accessibility issues until you find yourself in one and you're trying to navigate the world yourself."

It makes no sense....

Yesterday i gave an old power wheelchair to a quadriplegic who has been waiting 2 years to get one through Medicare. The smile on his face knowing that he can now get around was priceless. It makes no sense that we have to pass on our used wheelchairs and supplies in order to give people some quality of life. We will change that so people in need can move on.

Here is an iBOT commercial that shows what they can do. These chairs need to be made again.

Veterans Push for Legislation to Cut Cost of High-tech Wheelchairs

Veterans groups and the inventor of the Segway scooter urged Congress to
pass legislation that would make a high-tech mobilized wheelchair more
affordable for wounded veterans and other paralyzed Americans at a May
14 Newsmaker.

The iBOT, a mobile powered wheel chair, has gone out of production
because Medicare is reimbursing purchases at the same rate as other
kinds of wheelchairs. With a price tag of about $22,000, that puts the
iBOT out of the reach of most people in the market for the device, they said.

One of them of who bought his iBOT when it was within his budget is Gary
Linfoot, a helicopter pilot who provided air support for special
operations forces in Iraq. Linfoot was injured in the country in 2008 in
a crash that left him paralyzed.

Linfoot has been maneuvering in an iBOT for about six months. He
testified that it is different from traditional wheelchairs because it
allows him to rise to six feet and talk to people eye-to-eye, ascend
stairs, negotiate curbs and travel over any kind of terrain -- including
sand and dirt.

The iBOT has also revived opportunities that seemed dead when he
returned from the war.

“Suddenly, some of those doors have opened,” Linfoot said at the
Newsmaker.

A civilian also praised the way the machine changed his outlook. “I felt
like I was not paralyzed anymore,” said Alan Brown, a paraplegic injured
in a swimming accident nearly two decades ago. “This chair is my life.”

Brown said that the iBOT is less expensive than similar wheelchairs on
the market. But without a higher government reimbursement it is still
too costly for him and most of the other 1.3 million Americans with
spinal cord injuries.

Dean Kamen, inventor of the iBOT as well as the Segway, is trying to
convince Congress to restore a higher reimbursement for the iBOT to
account for its greater technological attributes. The rate has fallen
to that for typical wheelchairs -- about $2,000.

“It’s a sad story if (iBOTs) go away, but it’s not because there’s a
villain,” Kamen said. “Sometimes bad policy just happens.”

He said society has an obligation to give veterans the benefit of the
best technology. “What do we owe people we’ve sent into harm’s way?”
--Mark Schoeff Jr.

Watch out D.C I am getting ready to come back.

Today was an unbelievably emotional day. The day started at The Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Dean Kamen, Stephen Baldwin, Leeann Tweedan and I went to visit injured soldiers who just returned home. I have never seen so many young men, who served our country, missing arms and legs -- it was absolutely horrifying. We also saw so many paralyzed soldiers. Dean and I left the hospital, looked at each other, and realized even more-so how imperative it is to keep the iBOT wheelchair in production.

The Huey 091 Foundation which has been donating iBOT wheelchairs to soldiers, made a donation of an iBOT to a quadruple amputee soldier who just returned from the war. The iBOT was given to the Huey 091 Foundation by the Darreyll Gwynn Foundation which also donates wheelchairs to people who can’t afford them. By giving this young man an iBOT – we changed his life. What a great feeling it was to see his face and know we made a difference.

At 3pm we had a press conference at the National Press Club - a Newsmaker event. Gary Lawson(Heuy 091 Foundation), William Chatfield (SSS), Jim Palmershon (American Airlines), Brandon Millet (Founder of The GI Film Festival), Gary Linfoot (a spinal cord injured fighter pilot who uses an iBOT), and I addressed the media about the discontinuing of the iBOT wheelchair. I think people were shocked by this news. Our support to get this changed is growing rapidly. At the end of the event, Stephen Baldwin grabbed the microphone and publicly joined our team. He started calling for immediate action and awareness of this issue. It was very inspiring!

The final highlight: Dean Kamen agreed to be the Guest of Honor at the 21st Annual Celebrity Golf & Tennis Tournament on August 3, 2009 benefiting The Alan T Brown Foundation. It is very difficult to describe the range of emotions I felt this week, but I feel good knowing this is just the beginning! This is one piece of my overall goal to make sure the 1.3 million people with spinal cord injuries and 5.7 people who suffer from paralysis will have a better quality of life. Watch out D.C – I’m planning my comeback!

Great day in DC

What a great day. I met with Dean Kamen and we discussed our game plan for getting the iBOT wheelchair made again. We know that we are both totally committed to making sure our government understand how the iBOT changes peoples lives who use the chair and the people around them.

We headed over to The GI Film Festival (which is taking place this week)reception at the Rusell Senate Caucus Room. Gary Lawson from The Huey 091 Foundation which buys iBOT's and gives them out to soldiers who return from war addressed the room to discuss the iBOT and how we need to get these chairs rolling again. After that Dean Kamen spoke about his commitment to helping our troops that come home in need of wheelchairs and in need of new arms (the Deka Arm) which is like no other. Dean said "He would never stop creating devices to better individual's lives".

Here are some pictures from the reception. Kelsey Grammer, Senator John McCain, Leeann Tweeden, Dean Kamen and oters were on hand. Big day tomorrow with a visit to the Walter Reed Hostital and then a Press Conference at The Nation Press Club.

The iBOT will roll again.....

Today I arrived in DC to get ready for the next 2 days of events. We did a walk through at the Senate Building where tomorrows evenings reception will take place in the Russell Senate Caucus Room. After that, I met with Dean Kamen's assistant to catch up and organize for the Thursday Newsmaker event at 3pm at the National Press Club. Below is the media advisory for Thursday's press conference.

Low-Reimbursement Rate Threatens Wheelchair for Wounded Vets

Contact: Mark Schoeff Jr., chair, NPC Newsmakers Committee (202-662-7218, mschoeff@workforce.com)

Dean Kamen, and inventor and entrepreneur, and Bill Chatfield, director of the Selective Service System, will discuss how a low Medicare reimbursement rate has put out of production a mobile wheelchair that
could benefit wounded veterans at a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, in the Broadcast Operations Center, Room 480, of the National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W.

Kamen and Chatfield will advocate for the iBOT, a mobile powered wheelchair that allows users to climb stairs, mount curbs, go to the beach, cover rough terrain and rise up to 6' tall in order to converse
with another person at eye level. They also will explore the importance of providing state-of-the art rehabilitation technology to wounded veterans and 1.3 million Americans with spinal cord injuries.

Kamen and Chatfield will be joined by Brandon Millett, president of the GI Film Festival, which is underway this week in Washington.

The iBOT is not being manufactured because Medicare and most private insurers only cover a fraction of the device's cost. That price is less expensive than other chairs currently on that market that do not give a person as much independence as the iBOT, according to its supporters. Regardless of individual needs or ability
to pay, no one can purchase an iBOT. Wounded veterans who were previously able to obtain the device are no longer able to do so.
-30-

Going Back to D.C.Tuesday

I am getting ready to go Capitol Hill where we will be with Dean Kamen. Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and a tireless advocate for science and technology. He is the founder and president of DEKA Research & Development Corporation, where he develops internally generated inventions and provides research and development for major corporate clients. He holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents for innovative devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. Some of his notable inventions include the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics, the HomeChoice™ portable peritoneal dialysis machine, the INDEPENDENCE® IBOT® Mobility System, and the Segway® Human Transporter.

I will be working with the Huey 091 Foundation which gives iBOT's to our country's Veterans. The Huey 091 Foundation and American Airlines will be hosting a reception to honor the GI Film Festival as well as honoring members of the Senate and Congress who served our country at Russell Senate Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building.

On Thursday we will be back at The National Press Club at 10am for a Newsmaker Event. After that we plan on going to Capitol Hill and the Walter Reed Hospital.

Our Goal is to open up peoples eyes to the fact that the most amazing wheelchair is no longer being manufactured and that it needs to change. Not surprisingly, the people who are making the coverage decisions have full use of their legs and arms and are not committed to a lifetime sentence sitting in a chair. It saddens me to think there are many people who will not be able to experience the freedom that I have had the opportunity to experience for the last few years. It changed my life and it depresses me even more to think that the freedom I and others who have been fortunate enough to obtain an iBOT have found, will have that freedom taken away again. We have Technology to change people’s lives and we are going to put on a shelf?

Getting Ready To Go Back To D.C.

Sorry I have not written in a while. I have been catching up and gearing up to head back to D.C. May 12-15th for The GI Film Festival and Ibot work. Stay tuned, i am just getting started.

We need to make sure those who protect us get the care they need.....

Back Home

Today was an interesting day as yesterday’s events begin to set in. I am so honored the The Reeve Foundation let me be part of this groundbreaking study that should lead to changes in how people with Spinal Cord Injuries and Paralysis live. If the story about my 21 year journey can help others, I will continue to make sure this stays in the public eye.



Here are Pictures from Yesterday of Alexandra Reeve and me speaking at The National Press Club.

What A Great Day

What a great day. I am back at the airport heading home. Today should open up many peoples eye's to the the problems we face day to day and be the start of change to get people the help that they need to live quality lives.

Here is Alexandra and Matthew Reeve at The Congressional Briefing* Senate Dirksen Senate Office Building


If you missed the webcast here's the link http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=57681

WFOR Miami http://cbs4.com/video/?cid=5

WCBS New York

Today Is The Day......

10am press event at The National Press Club, watch it live http://www.visualwebcaster.com/Reeve-Foundation-Prevalence-Study/ then off to Congressional Briefing at the Senate Dirksen Senate Office Building,
2:00 – 3:30 p.m.

I will try to keep you updated on how its going today, if not I will fill you in tonight. Here is the first of stories that will run today http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_he_me/us_med_paralysis_2

Here is video piece from WCBS-TV New York http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=126819@wcbs.dayport.com

ATB is in DC

I am DC and am ready for tomorrow's 10am press event, watch it live http://www.visualwebcaster.com/Reeve-Foundation-Prevalence-Study/. you will be able to see news interviews in Miami CBS4 and New York on WCBS starting at 5am. Follow my blog at http://alantbrown.blogspot.com/

Let The Countdown Begin

I had a great weekend with family and friends. I am ready to go, you will be able to see news interviews in Miami CBS4 and New York on WCBS starting at 5am. Here is a picture of me with my friend Gill 20 mintues before my accident.