Outrageous News:Black Woman Offered White Foot ~Zim Matrix660

Tue August 26, 2003 10:24 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - A black woman due to have her lower leg amputated was offered a white false foot and told she would have to pay extra if she wanted one that matched her skin, she said Monday. Ingrid Nicholls, 46, said she was told at the state-funded hospital in Oxford, central England, that she would have to pay about $4,725 for a prosthetic limb that matched her skin color.

The cost of the white foot would have been covered by the National Health Service.

"If you've got to have an amputation, you should be allowed to have an artificial limb in the color that is relevant to your skin," she told Reuters.

"It's not cosmetic. Who would want to look like a freak, having one white leg and one black one -- nobody."

A spokeswoman for the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority said there had been an internal misunderstanding over funding and that the health service would pay for Nicholls to be fitted with the appropriate false limb.

"This has caused a real problem for this patient and we need to sort it out," the spokeswoman said. "We are sorry for the upset and hurt that has been caused."

This woman should sue for descrimination!How dare the insurance not cover a prosthetic leg of her skin tone and cover white prosthetics! That's just not right!