In the face of adversity, Réal Hutchinson wants to stay strong. He gets this temperament from his mother.”a fighter” he says, and of his family, his sister and his two brothers who surround him with their love. “They help me live through their presence and their luminosity.”
The words come naturally from the mouth of Réal who lives most of the time immobilized in his electric wheelchair. “If I didn’t have my mom, my sister and my brothers, I would be placed in an institution. I wouldn’t have the chance to have my own place and be independent.”.
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A treasure called Modest
Independent ? Two housekeepers come to his house on Tuesday and Friday. They clean, tidy and put things in order, wash the dishes, make the bed and prepare meals. They bring company. They are not the only ones since a home nurse visits him every day, morning and evening. His name is Modeste. He gets him out of bed, takes him to the bathroom and takes him to the shower. Modeste comes back in the evening and helps him put him back to bed. All things that Réal Hutchinson is incapable of accomplishing alone. “If Modeste had an impediment, I would be condemned to having to wait for him all night while sitting in my wheelchair, and to hope that someone would arrive the next day”.
But Réal has no fear. Modeste is available 7 days a week, 365 days a year. “I need his help. He means a lot to my life, much more than just a nurse. And what a pleasure to see him continually in a good mood and driven by the desire to do well”.
When contacting us, Réal Hutchinson had a goal in mind, a specific request.
For this purpose, he had prepared a short video. He had filmed himself. We see him in bed, shirtless. The morning was well underway. It was going to be 10 o’clock and his nurse hadn’t had a chance to arrive yet.
This is what Réal wants to highlight: to highlight the too few nurses at home.
Nothing new, to tell the truth: the profession has been saying for years that it works in conditions which lead to unpleasant, unfortunate and unfortunate consequences for the patient.
Réal explains it in his own words: “Modest can’t cut herself in two. He has his tour. I’m not his only patient. Sometimes I have to wait for him all morning and then, being hungry, thirsty and above all, more disturbing, having to satisfy an urgent need. Being unable to get up on my own, I have to go to bed.”
Réal insists. His nurse can’t do anything about it: “There is a shortage of staff, we need more nurses. Everyone knows it but no one does anything. When are we going to help caregivers? This has to change.”
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Wood of Dreams
But let’s continue his story. When he was born at the end of the 1970s, Maryse, his traveling mother who left Belgium to discover the world, hitchhiked to the United States and met a Hawaiian, Bobby, with whom she fell in love. From their love was born this child of whom she learned that following a medical accident which occurred at birth, he would have reduced motor and cerebral capacities and would be paralyzed for life in all four limbs. The accident during childbirth caused hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in the brain.
Réal Hutchinson has only had an electric wheelchair for a few years.
The cart changed his life. It has given him real autonomy which allows him to leave the single-storey apartment he occupies on avenue des Musiciens, to go have a drink at the “Grand-Place” where we know him well, to sometimes go around from the lake and, if the weather permits, to push on to the Bois des Rêves.
Although he loves Louvain-la-Neuve, Réal doesn’t say the same about Ottignies, whose sidewalks “are not adapted everywhere as they should be.he curses.
His search: young people to help him, go out and do activities
Réal Hutchinson speaks little but speaks well. And if the video he had prepared only lasts eighteen seconds, it says a lot. The resident of Louvain-la-Neuve, this student town, took this chance to launch an appeal: “I’m looking for student volunteers to help me, to go out and do activities.”
Friendly and jovial, you will never hear him feel sorry for him. Meeting him is overwhelming. He tells us about his life, his desires, his regrets. He would have liked to continue his studies, even though he had completed a full cycle in special education. “I would still have liked to go further. I have the capacity but I couldn’t, especially because of the burden of care.”
Will his cry for help be heard? This unusual man, of touching kindness and depth, hopes for a maximum of reactions. “I ask, however, that it comes from the heart, he said. You need the desire, not that it is an obligation. Otherwise, it’s not worth it.”
Réal, filled with hope, awaits your reactions. To be practical, he wanted to communicate his email address, which is: [email protected]
