25-02-2025
New Jersey lawmakers hear Eric LeGrand advocate for home health aides
WOODBRIDGE, N.J. (PIX11) — Fifteen years after a spinal cord injury left him paralyzed, Eric LeGrand's comeback story is still being written. He's become a successful entrepreneur, from ventures in whiskey to coffee.
But it's the home health aides, he says, that give him that opportunity to succeed each day.
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'I think they should be held to the highest of high because they are literally doing God's work,' said LeGrand. '[People] see me out and about, but you don't see the whole process, the three-hour process just to get me going each morning, and I feel like the lawmakers need to be aware of that.'
Inside his Woodbridge coffee shop, LeGrand invited several State lawmakers to have a discussion on what they could do to bring more funding to home health care.
'It allows me to be able to have the life that I have and be able to create business for myself that so many other people should have access to that as well,' said LeGrand.
LeGrand and his family say home health care workers are not just aides and nurses, they're also family.
'I don't know where things would be right now [without them],' said Eric's mother, Karen LeGrand. 'He would definitely not be in the position he is now as far as being successful, to be able to be out and about because it would be all on me.
'Let's say, someone calls out,' Karen LeGrand continued. 'Because there is a shortage, we can't always have a nurse.'
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According to the advocacy group Hearts for Home Care, more than 4,000 people in New Jersey rely on private-duty nurse services. They say advocates are asking state lawmakers to increase the private duty nurse rate by $4 an hour in this year's budget.
Democratic Assemblywoman Carol Murphy says legislators will make sure home health care conversations continue in Trenton.
'We've been successful in getting them higher wages over the last few years but there's still a long way to go,' said Murphy (D-NJ 7th District). 'As the chair of the [Assembly] Health Committee, I can tell you these are things we're going to start addressing even more.'
Governor Phil Murphy makes his final budget address on Tuesday.
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