It is mainly manifested by excessive daytime sleepiness and uncontrollable daytime sleepiness. Only about five hundred patients in the Czech Republic have narcolepsy. One of the victims of this autoimmune neuropathy is 38-year-old Martin Primus. “We live in a state of chronic fatigue. It's like a healthy person doesn't sleep for three days at full load. How do you want to work with that?” he asks.
Martin Primus suffers from fainting spells. He works and sleeps behind the wheel. But he applied for disability pension in vain
| Photo: Courtesy of Martin Primus
He wakes up at eight in the morning and has to go to bed at ten. He wakes up before noon, eats lunch and goes to sleep again after one o'clock in the afternoon. He wakes up at five and can function from six to ten in the evening. “But who would hire me this time? Whether I want to retrain or study, everything happens during the day,” he said.
Narcolepsy Mainly manifested by excessive daytime sleepiness and uncontrolled daytime sleepiness.
The first symptoms appeared at the age of fifteen, but he was only diagnosed after a car accident in 2006. He was twenty-one years old and quit his job after three months. After sick leave, he got a job as a telephone operator. He finished in a week and had already fallen asleep during the initial training. Exhausted, he also failed at his third job, where he sold computer components for a month.
He had severe scoliosis of the spine, three herniated discs, one two millimeters from the spinal cord. He was denied disability pension:
She was not allowed to stand, walk or sit. She was denied a disability pension and had to continue working
As an electro mechanic, he mainly depended on shift work, so he decided to change his field and started studying. economic In college. He still completed his bachelor's degree, but had to drop out of master's in the fifth year. “I hallucinated even in the middle of lectures, collapsed from exhaustion, and finally collapsed completely,” he recounts.
Martin Primus in graduation. After his bachelor's degree, he also attempted a master's degree, but did not complete it due to illness
It was 2014 and he didn't know what to do. He tried to develop an advanced relaxation app but failed. “I live in Karvinska. With my illness and the socio-economic environment here, it's difficult to keep up with modern technology,” he explained. That's why he ended up on the registry Labor OfficeWhere is it so far?
An invisible problem
In 2018, he decided to apply Disability Pension. “Instead of being examined by a neurologist, he examined me as an orthopedic surgeon. He didn't acknowledge me at all. He asked me what I wanted there if I had healthy arms and legs. I explained to him in vain that it was an invisible neurological problem,” she recounted.
They recognized that his ability to work was reduced by 20 percent. At the very least, a 1st degree disability requires a minimum of 35 percent. “I appealed, but it was reviewed by a doctor's colleague, and it turned out that way. I thought I had nothing to lose, so I started judging myself,” he continued.
When Mary Zemanova began to lose her hearing, she asked for an increase in her maintenance allowance. However, it has seen its reduction to the minimum:
She cannot see and her allowance was reduced after her hearing deteriorated. The authorities are dragging out the appeal
The court referred the case to the Office of the Medical Examiner Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. “However, it's the same rating system, even though they gave me a 1st degree disability, the result is the same,” Primus sighed. At the court's instigation, the case was evaluated by a forensic expert, but he did not receive an opinion from him.
Spokesperson Czech Social Security Administration (ČSSZ) Terisa Kukolova had already told Denik that if she appealed against their first-instance decision, the case would be handed over to the administration's objection department. This will require a new assessment of health and fitness from the Assessment Service. “We adhere to the principle that the same case cannot be assessed by a single doctor,” he stressed.
Back in court
Primus received 1st disability, but he was five months short of pay so they didn't start paying him disability pension. Social Insurance. The additional fee was 15 thousand crowns, which he insisted he wanted to pay immediately. However, the District Social Security Administration wants 47,000 crowns from him, i.e. an additional fee that does not recognize the duration of the court proceedings. So this case is settled again in court.
He also appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. “The first degree of disability does not solve anything, it is practically impossible to work anywhere with my disease. In addition, they have recognized my disability since 2019, while I have suffered from the disease since 2007. Two reports of the same diagnosis, when the concerned persons received the 3rd degree of disability, ”I have attached it to the case. But no one has commented on it,” he explained.
Supreme Administrative Court However, he never discussed the case due to “legal success during court proceedings”. And so they are judged again.
In 2022, she founded a private Facebook group called Disability Against CSSA, where disabled people like her feel victimized by the government and complain that the government unfairly reduces or cancels their disability. The group has more than 4000 members and more are added every day. Primus tries to help people who are still waiting for arguments with authorities and court cases. “The government is trying to save us, it doesn't care how it hurts us,” he said.
Elderly people in nursing homes and at home suffer from malnutrition:
Some pensioners at home are malnourished. There are many reasons
According to ČSSZ spokeswoman Kokolova, the decrease in the number of disabled pensioners is only optical. Since 2010, a system has been introduced whereby every disability pension is converted into an old-age pension upon reaching the age of 65. “The number of recognized defects is actually increasing quite a bit,” he added. According to him, the number of recognized disabled people, but without the required pension insurance for a certain age, is also increasing slightly, so the disability pension is not provided.
Primus doesn't know how to get out of his predicament. “I have never received a single crown from the government and I live with my parents Retirement Pension It feeds me completely. I have registered with the employment office, but they don't know what to do with me there. Also, I have no view of old age pension,” he explained.
People with Disabilities vs Govt
On Facebook, a disabled group was created against the Czech Social Security Administration (ČSSZ). An application for disability or an application for an increase in its degree or maintenance allowance by the Government or an application for an increase in the same is applied for by the Government. It currently has over 4,000 members and is still growing.
At the request of Deník.cz, dozens of disabled teachers are contacting teachers who feel affected by the CSSA's decision.
