A WOMAN disabled by an horrific fall says health workers have failed to adapt her home, despite her pleading for help for more than a year.

Wheelchair-bound Jo Franks has been living with friends in Malvern since she suffered a severe spinal injury 11 months ago.

She says the occupational therapy department at NHS Herefordshire have done nothing to adapt her isolated bungalow.

The 44-year-old suffered two torn discs in her spine and a prolapsed disc when she slipped on ice on the path outside her home.

The accident ended her career as a support worker for adults and children with special needs and disabilities.

She has been told by doctors that she has debris in her spine and risks permanent paralysis if she falls again.

But all she has been given so far to help is an easyreach grabber, a sock-aid and a shoe horn – which she branded inadequate and an insult.

She said: “I endured two humiliating assessments in March and again in July, meeting the occupational therapist at my home on both occasions.

“I performed like a monkey in front of six people to demonstrate my limited mobility and inability to access the shower over the bath. I am now a wheelchair-user. I have also pleaded for necessary equipment such as a special kettle, grab rails and hand-rails up to the front door but have only received one easyreach grabber a sock-aid and a long-handled shoe horn, which lay on my doormat at my home for three months, as I was told the occupational therapists couldn’t post it to where I was staying in Malvern.”

She returned to her home in Stoke Prior, Herefordshire, in December and she is afraid she will fall again unless urgent work is completed to adapt her bungalow.

Since returning home, Ms Franks has had to buy a wheelchair, mobility scooter, wheelchair-adapted vehicle, armchair, orthopaedic mattress and pillows, kettle and toaster, using £2,500 of her savings.

She said: “I have been begging the occupational therapy department to put some grab rails up in my porch, to assist me in negotiating the steps, and hand-rails either side of the treacherous path, where I slipped and caused this horrific injury in the first place.

“Despite this, and the fact that my friends have had me to stay with them for more than 10 months, thus saving Leominster Hospital the bed and the NHS thousands of pounds, the department is insisting that I must endure yet another assessment before they will even consider putting necessary rails down the path.”

She says she is unable to access shower or bathing facilities without the help of her personal assistants, who are employed with her personalised budget, which is provided by Herefordshire Council.

They take her to a hydrotherapy pool in Malvern three times a week which is crucial to her recovery.

An NHS Herefordshire spokeswoman said: “The case is now being looked into by the health ombudsman and we will co-operate fully with any enquiries he makes.”