Broken wheelchair due to dropped curb not dropped all the way - advice?

Lum

Just had a rather distressed call from my partner who has been a full time wheelchair user as of a few months back, and recently bought her own chair rather than hiring one. this was a pretty significant expense since we needed on that I was actually capable of lifting.

I don't yet have the full details as it was a bad line but it seems she has gone down a dropped curb that was not dropped all the way to the road, and broken both front casters on her chair, they no longer rotate so she can only go in a straight line. To turn she has to lean back, but not so far that she ends up on the anti tippers, and then rotate the chair using the main wheels.

No idea yet if her e-motion wheels are damaged as well.

I'm currently at work, 60 miles away from where she is as we work in different cities. The nearest dealership where she can get replacement castors is 114 miles from our home.

Any advice on how we should proceed?

munchings-n-crunchings

I'm sorry I know nothing about dropped kerbs, or wheelchairs.
But, does this chair have a similar option to a childs buggy, where you can lift a catch and the wheels rotate, and you slide it down to lock them in position?
It's sounds possible as the chair is ok in forwards motion.

Regards
Munchie

Lum

It turns out it's the swivel on the forks that is broken, it needs at least two new forks, possible two new legs depending on if they are bent or not. She's had to take tomorrow off work to go get replacements fitted. Someone from the council is currently taking her+chair back to her car so she can come home.

I don't know anything about buggies sorry, so I don't know what you mean there.

sunnyone

dropped curbs are never done properly, often they are an inch or more out so you have to look and anticipate this inch to make sure you can *pop* a manual chair up/down to compensate (and it can be much more than an inch on the worst offenders)

Whos her insurance with? (car or home often has legal insurance included if she hasnt got a specialist wheelchair insurance but she really should look at a policy if she dosnt have one yet.)

Ive never know anyone who has tried to claim damages from dropped curb damage but its worth a try, why did she buy a chair instead of getting a NHS one that would be repaired for free btw?

The NHS so provide decent chairs if you can prove you need one, Ive had some very expensive active user chairs in the past and I currently have a less specialised active user (because I dont need as specialised manual chair anymore) and powerchair provided by the NHS both of which I insured ( alongside my other wheelchairs, PDQ etc.)

Lum

It turns out she was crossing the road and attempted to go up the dropped curb, which was actually raised 44mm from the road surface according to the measurements taken by the council worker, hit the curb which tipped up the chair and dumped her onto the floor as well as doing the damage already mentioned.

She was unable to see that it was so tall as the edge of the curb is crumbled and near vertical, rather than rounded but also managed to be indistinguishable from the top of the curb. All she could see as being vertical was the undamaged bottom 10mm of the curbstone.

She has e-motion wheels which are electronically limited to 4mph so this was not a high speed impact.

So now we're looking at both of us taking a day off work as her car does not have sufficient range in it's tank to do the round trip to the wheelchair dealership in one go, and without the chair she can't pay for fuel, and hoping that they are able to repair the chair same day.


Regarding NHS wheelchairs, There are no NHS wheelchairs available that are light enough that I am capable of lifting that also fold small enough to fit in her car. For bonus points, because we're in Wales it turns out that if none of the NHS models are suitable you don't even get a voucher, you get nothing.

So going down the NHS route: we'd be looking at 3 months loss of earnings while we wait for a chair. Not to mention replacing her car, which is one of her few remaining pleasures in life, with a Berlingo-type vehicle or leaving me unable to assist her should she run out of spoons whilst out and about.

It was much more cost effective, not to mention a better overall result, to just buy the chair privately.

sunnyone

Lum wrote: »

It turns out she was crossing the road and attempted to go up the dropped curb, which was actually raised 44mm from the road surface according to the measurements taken by the council worker, hit the curb which tipped up the chair and dumped her onto the floor as well as doing the damage already mentioned.

She was unable to see that it was so tall as the edge of the curb is crumbled and near vertical, rather than rounded but also managed to be indistinguishable from the top of the curb. All she could see as being vertical was the undamaged bottom 10mm of the curbstone.

She has e-motion wheels which are electronically limited to 4mph so this was not a high speed impact.

So now we're looking at both of us taking a day off work as her car does not have sufficient range in it's tank to do the round trip to the wheelchair dealership in one go, and without the chair she can't pay for fuel, and hoping that they are able to repair the chair same day.


Regarding NHS wheelchairs, There are no NHS wheelchairs available that are light enough that I am capable of lifting that also fold small enough to fit in her car. For bonus points, because we're in Wales it turns out that if none of the NHS models are suitable you don't even get a voucher, you get nothing.

So going down the NHS route: we'd be looking at 3 months loss of earnings while we wait for a chair. Not to mention replacing her car, which is one of her few remaining pleasures in life, with a Berlingo-type vehicle or leaving me unable to assist her should she run out of spoons whilst out and about.

It was much more cost effective, not to mention a better overall result, to just buy the chair privately.

She isnt hurt is she, I've been dumped out both forward and rear and it can really hurt because your not expecting it and your closer to the ground!

From your discription she has a better chance of the council paying for the damages as the curb has crumbled away so it cant have been checked for a while but it dosnt help you/her at present though.

For fuel stops she just needs to sound the horn and and wave her blue badge, 99% of petrol stations will come out and help her(take cash to pay, its easier) and she can get a service call for the future, its under a tenner and alerts the staff that a disabled person needs help to fill up, I use it because my ramp comes out of the side door and my door cant be open while its filled up and I wouldnt get close enough to the pump to fill up anyway of the ramp was returned under the floor.

Wales and Scotland have diffrent wheelchair criteria to England, a lot of it is down to having free prescriptions according to many welsh/scottish diasbled people that I speak to on line, I know from my own two decades in the system that the two diffrent wheelchair services Ive dealt with have been great at getting my what works for me and always very quickly as in as soon as the manufactuer could deliver( so in the same time a mobility shop could have got the same product).

As a side issue, she has been measured etc. to make sure the wheelchair is the right size and it has been set up correctly for her?

And in England even if you buy a chair you are entitled to a cushion assessment and the correct cushion supplied by the NHS, it would be well worth having one where you are if she can as decent cushions can cost more than a cheaper, off the peg wheelchair and you dont always "take" to a cushion no matter how much they cost.

QuackQuackOops

Lum wrote: »

Just had a rather distressed call from my partner who has been a full time wheelchair user as of a few months back, and recently bought her own chair rather than hiring one. this was a pretty significant expense since we needed on that I was actually capable of lifting.

I don't yet have the full details as it was a bad line but it seems she has gone down a dropped curb that was not dropped all the way to the road, and broken both front casters on her chair, they no longer rotate so she can only go in a straight line. To turn she has to lean back, but not so far that she ends up on the anti tippers, and then rotate the chair using the main wheels.

No idea yet if her e-motion wheels are damaged as well.

I'm currently at work, 60 miles away from where she is as we work in different cities. The nearest dealership where she can get replacement castors is 114 miles from our home.

Any advice on how we should proceed?

Tell her to be more careful next time. Not everything is a claim,

Mupette

Ignore quack quack's post.


OP i hope your partner is ok, it can be very distressing to fall out of the chair.

Get onto the council asap as this curb needs to be sorted, but can someone get there to take pictures before hand.

Also are the Red Cross any good to you for loan of a wheelchair, although i don't think they have electric ones, but i could be wrong.

Check to see if your insurance would cover this (i know its been mentioned)

Lum

^^^ We have pictures, it's clear from them that the curb looks pretty much flush with the road from a distance. Someone from the council has already been out to see it.

Red Cross are no help, last time I asked them, when it first became apparent that she needed one, it was a two week wait for a trolley type chair and several months to get a manual one.

sunnyone wrote: »

She isnt hurt is she, I've been dumped out both forward and rear and it can really hurt because your not expecting it and your closer to the ground!

Not seriously, but she is in somewhat more pain than usual. Not really much me or anyone here can do about that however.

For fuel stops she just needs to sound the horn and and wave her blue badge, 99% of petrol stations will come out and help her(take cash to pay, its easier)

There are two stations on her trip home from work that have LPG. Her usual one is quite willing to help (depending on who is on, some of them just look at her funny until they get sick of her beeping). Unfortunately that one was closed earlier this week, so the next option was Cribbs Causeway who completely ignored her, meaning she had to set up her chair at the side of the pump and wheel herself in, adding an extra half hour to her commute and leaving her with so few spoons that it caused some serious difficulties that evening.

Understandably she's now a little reluctant to go looking on her own for LPG in an unfamiliar area when there is no gaurantee that her chair will be fixed same day once she gets it to the dealership. But that's ok because I'm taking a day off tomorrow and we'll go in my car.

and she can get a service call for the future, its under a tenner and alerts the staff that a disabled person needs help to fill up

None of the garages she uses appear to have the receiver fitted.

Wales and Scotland have diffrent wheelchair criteria to England

This happened in England.

As a side issue, she has been measured etc. to make sure the wheelchair is the right size and it has been set up correctly for her?

Yes. That was done by the same dealership who sold her the chair, fitted the e-motion wheels etc. It's not an off the peg chair, far from it.

Mupette

Ok going to go out on a limb here.

I live in Bristol.
I have a power chair, but it is only designed for teens/small adults.
being blunt size 10/12 at a push.

I have a nissan note, it goes in piece by piece but then again these boots are quite generous.

I'm selling because i need a scooter, the power chair is too heavy for me to take in and out of the car.

But temporary is it something that would help until she gets her's sorted? to borrow not to buy ofc

Mupette

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/electricwheelchair1.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/electricwheelchair2.jpg/

this is what it looks like