Disability (Persons with)

Ninety-year-old Eduardo Navia brought this tutela action seeking to receive disability payments from the State. He had undergone heart surgery in May 1998 and January 2008, with both surgeries limiting his ability to work. Relying on a certification of disability issued by the Social Security Agency (ISS) Section of Bolivar on September 14, 2007, he applied for disability benefits to the ISS on October 5, 2007. The ISS determined his date of disability to be March 6, 2007, but denied his application claiming that he had failed to comply with the requirements of Art.

Mark Keenan received intermittent psychiatric treatment since the age of 21. At 28, Keenan was admitted to prison, initially to the prison health center. Several attempts were made to transfer him to the general population, but his mental health worsened each time. Following a transfer attempt, he assaulted two guards and his sentence was increased by twenty-eight days. The next day Keenan hung himself.

Shortly after the plaintiff, Jamie Sinnott, was born in 1977, doctors discovered he was severely autistic.  For the next 22 years of his life, his mother attempted to provide her son with basic speech, language, and motor skills, as well as toilet-training.  Unfortunately, she discovered that the few institutions for children with severely physically and mentally disabilities in Cork, Ireland did not meet the continuous education needs of her autistic child. In 1997, Mrs.