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La Voz Canaria

Six years in hospital due to bureaucracy for adapted housing

A young tetraplegic man leaves Gran Canaria's Insular Hospital after a long struggle for an accessible home.

Generic image of hands with papers and medical equipment in the background.
IA

Generic image of hands with papers and medical equipment in the background.

After six years admitted to Gran Canaria's Insular Hospital, the young Miguel Planas, 33, has finally been able to access housing adapted to his tetraplegia, overcoming a complex bureaucratic deadlock.

Miguel Planas, a 33-year-old from Gran Canaria, has left the Insular Hospital of Gran Canaria after spending six years admitted. His departure, on June 1st, was not due to medical reasons but to overcoming a "bureaucratic jam" that prevented him from accessing housing adapted to his tetraplegia condition, suffered after a fall in a gym on March 7, 2020. This injury caused him a dependency requiring a respirator to live.
Planas recounts that the adapted housing options offered to him "were not viable" for his situation, leaving him feeling "a bit helpless." "If it took me six years to get here and I did it on my own, it means things weren't done; there was no intention, no interest," laments the young man, who points to his family's lack of financial resources and the "unassumable requirements" to obtain a subsidy from the Government of the Canary Islands.
His case is not isolated, as "hundreds of people in situations of dependency" occupy hospital beds in the Canary Islands due to the lack of external resources. He mentions the case of his friend Said Lamrabet, also tetraplegic since 2021 after arriving by boat, who remains hospitalized with no release date. Both plan to attend an event on June 11th at the Cathedral of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to present their reality to the pontiff.
Planas attributes the lack of resolution in his case to a "lack of empathy" and little "interest" in solving the problems of a "minority." Faced with the prolonged hospital stay, and after "many meetings, calls, emails," he turned to social media. This triggered a collective crowdfunding campaign and a benefit concert that allowed him to buy and renovate an affordable home.
"The public's response was amazing. Especially here in the Canary Islands, when someone needs help, you see a lot of solidarity," he states, highlighting the mobilization of citizens and entities. Now, in his new home, he can "invite people to my house and not to the hospital," regaining "privacy, sleeping without noise, waking up when I want; it's freedom."
Despite the "difficult moments, including depression, anxiety, and stress" experienced over these years, Planas has developed resilience and a positive attitude. Now, with "great enthusiasm," he plans to continue with his artistic projects such as theater and painting, and sports like boccia, as well as "the creation of a center for people with physical disabilities." He recalls that "limitations are in the head."

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