The Minnesota Council on Disability (MCD) is continuing our celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In honor of our shared community, MCD is thrilled to share Brian’s story with you. Brian Muchiri shares his experience of traveling to the United States from Kenya and what it was like to have his wheelchair damaged by an airline. We are thankful for people like Brian, who are willing to share stories with our community.
Two months after the accident, the doctor pulled my parents aside and showed them how expensive the hospital bill was getting. “The boy is out of danger,” he said. Adding, “We have done all we can, go home, you don’t need to break the bank anymore.” It was on a Thursday evening that I was put into the ambulance and driven home. I was a spinal cord injury survivor with a C5 injury, though the doctors said I was okay, it felt like I was hanging on by a thread.
For the first full year after arriving home, I was entirely bedridden and only sat on my wheelchair once a week at most. Because of the severity of my injury, I couldn’t physically push myself on a manual chair, especially not the heavy, thin-wheeled chair I had. I would dream of getting my independence one day, but I needed a power chair. I hadn’t seen one in my life. I just knew that it was going to be expensive to get.
Two years after the injury, a few close friends came together and raised money for me to get the wheelchair I needed. It was a magical time in my life because I was being supported by people that didn’t even know me. We bought the wheelchair in the UK and shipped it 7,000 miles to Kenya in Africa, which is where I come from. Finally, I was free in a way that I had not been in a long time. There was joy and jubilation in my home when my grandmother saw me running errands by myself. With a tear in her eye, my grandmother said, “They are not legs, they are wheels, you might not walk or run but you will certainly move. And one day, you will fly!”
In the summer of 2023, I was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship that takes 700 young African leaders to the United States and puts them through an intense leadership training program. I finally got the opportunity to leave my village and see what lay beyond it. I was going to be leaving my country for the first time – flying for the first time as well.
I was over the moon with excitement, but I was also terrified. Before my trip, I did a lot of research on flying as a wheelchair user because I had heard stories about how chairs would get damaged in planes. I had worked so hard to buy my wheelchair – I couldn’t even fathom how life would’ve been if it got damaged. In the end, I made peace with the fact that I could do very little to avoid its damage because I was going to change planes multiple times.
I still don’t know how I feel about my first time flying. On one side, I really appreciate the wheelchair assist service where airport staff help you and your caregiver go through the check-in process. This also varies from airport to airport. In the states, it was solid but elsewhere, some people made me feel like I was an inconvenience to them. It was like I was the dreaded client that is passed along to the guy who got the shortest straw. I would, however, like to emphasize that this is my personal experience, and it might not reflect what others have gone through.
Wheelchair users usually board the plane first and are last to exit. I love this idea and I have no problem with it. My issue was that this wasn’t common practice in all airports. Sometimes they would make me board last. This is a very uncomfortable situation for any wheelchair user because the aisle chair draws a lot of attention, plus you end up bumping into other passengers which could have been avoided if they let you board first.
This is why I am conflicted about flying. Depending on the airport, I have a smooth experience but other times it’s frustrating. I was taking two flights from Michigan to Washington D.C. This was the second leg of the fellowship, and we were headed for the summit. My chair had been unscathed at this point, and I was starting to think that maybe the stories of negligence were exaggerated.
Upon arriving in D.C., there were no visible signs of damage to my chair, so I sat on it and headed for the hotel. I did notice the ride was a bit wobbly, but I assumed the tire pressure was low. It wasn’t. When moving around in the hotel, I heard a loud noise and one rear wheel snapped off the frame. I hit the floor hard but luckily my caregiver was close by to help me up. I was distraught because my chair was damaged 13,000 kilometers from home in a completely foreign country. I still had one month left in the states. What was I going to do?
Our group was going to see the State Capitol and the Washington Monument that day. I missed out because of my damaged wheelchair. I also missed out on seeing the White House because I was grounded in my hotel room. It was a very confusing and stressful time in my trip. I spoke to the officials of the fellowship and told them what had happened. They were amazing and rented me a wheelchair to use for the rest of my stay.
Upon closer inspection to the damage of the chair, we decided it was better to leave it behind because shipping would have been more expensive than the chair itself. I should have written a complaint to the airline, but I didn’t know better. Plus, there had not been any visible damage at the airport, so I didn’t feel like I had enough evidence. Something must have happened during my flight that led to that kind of damage. I had a rental chair, but I could not go back home with it. I flew back to Kenya without a wheelchair.
As someone who is completely dependent on their chair for mobility, it was going to be a challenge to make the 20-hour trip without a wheelchair. The wonderful staff at the airport were mostly kind and the wheelchair assist service was very helpful. If you ask me, flying as a wheelchair user is such a gamble. I wouldn’t want to scare or discourage anyone out there, but by sharing my story I hope you can be better prepared. As a first-time air traveler, I got unlucky – I hope it is different for you.