FARGO - Sharon Eid says she has spent the last four years battling paralysis, both from a spinal condition that left her unable to work and a government agency that left her without benefits.

Eid, who hasn't worked since 2003, said doctors have told her she will likely become a quadriplegic. She's had two surgeries, but was told a third operation won't work because her bones aren't strong enough.

"It's been a very long haul," Eid said Monday at a meeting with Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., and Social Security Administration officials. "If it weren't for my children and my friends and my church taking care of me, I wouldn't be here. I think I would have put an end to it a long time ago."

Eid, 57, only recently received approval for benefits and should see the first check in about four months, said her lawyer, Mark Schneider.

"If it's this hard to reach a final decision in a case of these facts, as disturbing as they are … what does it take to establish disability?" Pomeroy asked.

The average wait for a person in North Dakota to receive a decision on a disability claim is 435 days, nearly twice the average in 2001, Pomeroy said. The national average is a 520-day wait.

"I tell you something, if I had regulated an insurance company that took more than two years whether or not to play a claim, that would have been a company in a whole lot of trouble with me as insurance commissioner," Pomeroy said.

More than 11,000 North Dakotans receive disability benefits from the Social Security Administration and "hundreds of others" are waiting for their claims to be processed, Pomeroy said.

The backlog is due primarily to a shortage of administrative law judges, an increased number of cases, and the lack of funding from the administration and Congress, Pomeroy said.

The case load will only increase in the coming years, Pomeroy said.

"If we think it's tough now, we're going to look back on these days as a walk in park when the baby boomers continue to age," Pomeroy said.

Jan Foushee, regional communications director for the Social Security Administration's Denver office, said the agency is improving the application process by using the Internet and video service.

"What we're trying to do as an agency is leverage our technology," Foushee said.

Schneider said he has been working on disability benefits since 1979. He said there has been several proposals to make the process easier for citizens, but none of them have worked.

"Everybody wants to make the train run better, on time," Schneider said. "But if that train is running inevitably into a concentration camp, it isn't doing anybody any good."