Yes Judy Manning it IS personal!

It is very personal for Pat and Kim Dunphy. 

Empathy is a word that Judy Manning uses frequently. It rolls off the unelected Minister's tongue as easy as the words Good Morning.

Well the morning is anything but good for the people Ms. Manning left behind to catapult from relative public obscurity to a high-powered seat in the Paul Davis government.

I have received permission this morning to relate what happened to Pat Dunphy last night. Mr. Dunphy is the gentleman you may recall featured on a CBC story last week. Press HERE to see the story.

I was in contact with Pat and his wife Kim this morning after learning that Pat took a fall last night. In their words "he was on his way to bed, I (Kim) was already gone to bed. He (Pat) had to get out of wheelchair because house is not accessible. He was dragging himself to the room walking holding onto the walls and he collapsed onto the rail of his bed bounced and hit the wall and landed on the floor."

"I (Kim) could hear something crunch I had to lift him (Pat) from the floor to the bed and undress him for bed he went into a seizure after the fall... His spinal cord is over 50% cut - he can walk but the neurosurgeon does not advise it".

Pat went on to tell me that,  "...he (Pat) had a lamininectomy so he has no bones to protect the outside of his spinal cord - so if he hits that area he will die".

Pat and Kim describe his initial injuries this way:  "initial cervical spine injury, quadriplegia, disc protrusion, 50%compromise of spinal cord, cervical myelopathy,progressive myelopathy,

spinal stenosis"

Further they say, "he has had surgeries anterior cervical disectomy and fusion and spinal decompression,laminectomy and fusion". 

So this couple went through another horrific night and morning - something that has happened many times in the 20 years since his workplace injury. 

Ms. Manning did not complete this review as a Commissioner of the WHSCRD - as she left to take her place at the Davis Cabinet table. 

Empathy Ms. Manning? Really Ms. Manning? While you and your colleague Tony Cornect - Minister responsible for the WHSC - were looking for votes in CBS - Pat was still waiting. These are people who needed your decision to move forward. 

Ms. Manning must understand that she had responsibilities - and that these were life-altering responsibilities. The Minister should not have walked away from that until those duties were fulfilled.

If the unelected Minister does not consider this an abrogation of responsibilities - then I fail to see how Manning can assure the people she will not do the same as Attorney General or Minister of Justice. 

Election day is today in CBS - we should remember what Cornect and Manning were doing while Pat and Kim Dunphy suffered through another day.