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Alexis Ratcliff is 19. She has lived since she was 13 in a hospital in North Carolina. And then this week, the disabled woman finally moved to her own apartment. The Trump administration put out a press release to celebrate its role, even though it's ending the federal program that made it possible. NPR investigative correspondent Joseph Shapiro has this story.
JOSEPH SHAPIRO, BYLINE: This is the moment Alexis Ratcliff saw, for the first time, her new apartment.
ALEXIS RATCLIFF: It's beautiful. It's gorgeous.
SHAPIRO: In her large kitchen, there's a sign. It says, home is where the story begins.
Hey, Alexis, what does that mean - home is where the story begins?
Over the whoosh of her ventilator, she says...
RATCLIFF: I'm only 19. I got a lot of life to live.
SHAPIRO: ...I'm only 19. I got a lot of life to live.
We told you Alexis Ratcliff's story last year. She was a baby when a car accident left her disabled. She's quadriplegic. She uses a wheelchair and needs that ventilator 24 hours a day to breathe. Her grandfather became her primary caregiver, but when he had serious health problems when Alexis was just 13, there was no longer a home or people to care for her. She moved into a hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was supposed to be a short stay. It lasted for six years in a hospital room.
KIRBY MORROW: When you wake up, it's the same thing every day. You're looking at these four walls. You're not outside getting fresh air.
SHAPIRO: That's Kirby Morrow with Disability Rights North Carolina. She worked more than a year to get Alexis Ratcliff out.
MORROW: And she wants to live her life. She doesn't have to look at those four walls. She will have freedom now.
SHAPIRO: It's hard for Alexis to pick a favorite place in her new apartment. The big bedroom with pink walls. The large shower. At the hospital, she got six years of sponge baths. Or maybe the patio was her favorite.
RATCLIFF: Yeah, I love the patio. The patio also might be my favorite. And that's because I love being outside.
SHAPIRO: When Alexis turned 18, the hospital, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, tried to kick her out. It sued her for trespass. Officials said they needed the space on the intensive care unit for other patients. They wanted Alexis to agree to move to a distant nursing home in another state. She refused. She wanted to stay near her family and friends and to accept a scholarship from a local college. Now, in her own place, she has goals.
RATCLIFF: The possibilities are endless.
SHAPIRO: To go to college to advocate for other disabled people.
RATCLIFF: Go back to school. Eventually go to law school. Go into politics.
SHAPIRO: After the NPR story, the hospital dropped its lawsuit against the teen. It was up to the state to find a place outside the hospital for Alexis to live. It helped that officials in Washington heard the NPR story and committed to helping and providing enough funding. Federal and state Medicaid money will now pay for a live-in nurse and several hours a day of a certified nursing assistant. It's expensive for someone with so much medical need to live at home, but far less than living in a hospital.
Eric Buehlmann is with the National Disability Rights Network. That's a federally funded legal advocacy group. He worries that the program that helped Alexis Ratcliff is zeroed out in the Trump administration's new budget.
ERIC BUEHLMANN: There's definitely going to be a whole group of people that are going to find it impossible to get the advocacy they need and the help to move out of the hospital and live on their own and in the community.
SHAPIRO: The U.S. Department of Education, which runs that program, didn't respond to our questions about the cuts. Another part of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, put out a press release celebrating its role in helping Alexis Ratcliff move out of the hospital. Ratcliff says HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. invited her to make her first big trip to come to Washington later this month and help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Alexis Ratcliff says she's going.
Joseph Shapiro, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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