Flying with a powerchair... TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE UPDATE

[Nanajo1]

Chris,
I hope every thing is resolved and you are back rolling around when I check back on this site in 10 days! I leave tomorrow. 7am flight to BWV until the 16th. I can't wait. I'll be thinking of all of you. And I will have a lime green ribbon!

 

[chris1gill]

Oh LUCKY YOU Nanajo1!!! Enjoy the BWV's for me, we have our reservation for Thanksgiving time... I am so looking forward to it! Are you bringing your powerchair with you? Or will you be renting one down there?

 

[Nanajo1]

I'm renting an ECV from Walker's again. I'm still afraid to risk taking my power chair.
Have a great week, I know I will! LOL

 

[Nanajo1]

I'm having trouble posting so I don't know if this is a repeat. I'm renting from Walker's again. I'm still chicken to take my power chair. Have a great week, I know I will! LOL

 

[chris1gill]

I know you'll have an awesome time! I can't use an ECV because my arm muscles can't tolerate being stretched as if driving a car (my right arm hardly likes the joystick!) Anyways, I rented a powerchair from Walkers last time we down in December, it went well, but it was EXPENSIVE (45.00/day), my Husband joked that the powerchair cost more than our premium size car like make a girl feel bad!!! It was good though

Hey, I just noticed you're from Acton, about 30 minutes from us in Pepperell!!!! Small world!

 

[SueM in MN]

My DD's controller is computerized and can be set with all sorts of different arrangements of the speed, how quickly it speeds up, responsiveness, etc.
The first time it broke, school paid for it because they didn't make sure it was stowed back in position before she drove away from a table.
We're still waiting on the bill (and the controller) from the next repair. We don't know what happened; we just went to drive it and the joystick was limp. THe tech had never seen one broken in that spot before. So far, though, insurance has paid for stuff she broke. For example, she's on her 3rd seat belt since September and she broke her footrests, at least the part that holds them on. So far, we've just had to pay a co-pay.

 

[chris1gill]

Hey Sue, Thanks for the info, is that just a regular insurance plan you have? I wonder if I should call mine & find out what if anything we have for a benefit as far as repairing the chair... the thing is with our insurance, confirmation of coverage of benefits does not guarantee payment, so you never know til the bill gets denied... how about that??? It's happened more than a couple of times & it's not pretty... It kind of leaves us between a rock & a hard stone.... our last insurance was the insurance that paid for the chair.... sounds like I'll need to at least make one phone call on this....

Her controls sound really neat by the way!! I think at some point I might have to look into other controls for myself (like head controls or ??) because in December I suffered left arm paralysis for a while then it was just left weak for a while & the other arm just gets tired sometimes... so I never know. The right arms been good for a month though LOL... but if you know anything about other controls I could use, that info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[SueM in MN]

We just have sort of "plain vanilla" health insurance. And, the "just because we approved it doesn't mean it will be paid" is always one of those things hanging over your head. Sometimes it's a coding problem. If just the right words aren't use to describe something, it gets counted as something else.
My DD did try a head control. They take a lot of skill to use and since she has good functional use of her hands, we finally settled on a joy stick with a goal post (looks just like a little football goal post). The ball that was on the top of her joystick screws off and the goal post went on in its place. Her biggest problems were that she has variations in tone and when she gets excited, her tone increases, which meant she ran into some walls because her still arm kept pushing the joystick.
The nice thing about the goal post is that you can use it with just gross motor (large muscle) control of your arm. By sitting her hand in the middle space of the goal post, she can drive the wheelchair without using her hand at all, just using the arm muscles. Or she can grab the flat part of the goal post with her fingers and drive it with her hand or even with a limp hand, without grasping. I don't kow if this makes sense, but it's the best I can do.
Her goalpost came as just a bare piece of metal, which I adapted by covering with foam and a little fleece cover. She would have said it was too cold otherwise.
There are lots of things that they can try besides just the joystick. Some of the girls in her dance class have tennis balls in place of the regular joystick balls, some have sticks. etc.

 

[chris1gill]

Well, I got very bad news today... The medical supply place fixing my chair called today... They got the new controller in & then went to work trying to find the cause of the squealing in the right wheel... Well after much thought, they figured it out.

The Airline bent the frame of the chair... Now, we're waiting for Pride Mobility to give a price for the frame... Meanwhile the supply place called American Airlines & is waiting for them to call back.... It appears at this point that the chair might be a total write off... I'll need a new chair... I'm completely distraught... I also need a rental in the worst way, so we're waiting on that as well....

Apparently in my case no news WASN'T good news I have to seriously debate bringing any powerchair I have on another airplane even though I desparately need it.....

I'll let you all know what happens..

 

[SueM in MN]

Oh, no. That is really terrible news. I wonder what they did to it to bend the frame. A long time ago, the frame got bent on my DD's manual wheelchair, but they were taking it apart to "grow" it as she got bigger. It seems like a power chair would be much harder to bend.
Hope this teaches them to handle the wheelchairs (manual or power) with care.

Here's some pixie dust for a quick and complete resolution to the problem (like quick delivery of a new chair with no money out of your pocket).

 

[teri]

Oh, Man......


I am sorry that you are going through this.

 

[mamajoan]

Oh Chris I am soo very sorry to hear this bad news... I am trying to think of what the airline could possibly have done to bend the frame... goodness... The only thing I can think of is if they parked it weird then something VERY heavy fell on top of it. HOLY COW! I hope the airline get the notion to TEACH their employees how to handle mobility equipment..

If you have to order a new powerchair... maybe the medical supply company would give you a loaner.. . Some of the companies I used to work with would do that for pts. Of course it might notbe the same model but it would be nice just for you to get around with it..
BTW: are you still furniture hopping this week?

best wishes, Joan

 

[chris1gill]

Thanks everyone... I can think of so many scenarios that would bust the frame of the chair... I'm sure whatever broke the frame also broke the electronics, that I'm sure of... But, if they dropped the chair down the stairs, down the gate, down anywhere ? That would surely do it... If they put the chair in & something really heavy landed on it, that would do it... Gosh, I can think of so many things :-( I suspect it was dropped....

MamaJoan, I went from furniture walking to not walking at all, so I need that rental... My legs are in a very bad way right now... too bad my legs chose now to have a bad spell!!!!

I'll let ya all know what American says, I know I am really sick over this now...

 

[SueM in MN]

i would bet it was dropped and fell onto the electronic part. The saddest thing about this is that SOMEONE had to have known that something major happened to your chair and they chose to do nothing and say nothing. What if a part was just cracked and then broke loose later, causing you to go out of control. Or even if no one was hurt, what if it was cracked, didn't totally break until later and the damage was then "not their fault" because it happened months later.

 

[chris1gill]

Sue,

You raise an excellent point about anything breaking in the future & it not being their fault. I think the chair is totalled, but if they do decide to fix it, I'll insist they go through it with a fine tooth comb looking for anything that looks suspicious...

Now, I have to wait until later & hope for a speedy decision... meanwhile I need a rental whatever they decide....

I tend to think the chair was dropped as well, live & learn I suppose

 

[Nanajo1]

Hi everyone I just got back a couple of hours ago and had to see how things were going.
Chris,
I am so sorry about your chair. I think the airlines should be paying for a rental for you. Have you checked that out? It might be worth it to speak to a lawyer.
On a happier note.... We had a great time. Weather was perfect. All the busses I rode were the lift type. I didn't see any with the ramp. I met a delightful CM at World of Disney at DD. She was a greeter. She has a "Quickie" brand power chair and said she had flown all over the country with it. She is some sort of spokesperson but I didn't quite catch it. I told her some of what has happened to Chris and she kept saying don't take any baloney from the airlines they must make it right.
Here's some PD coming your way Chris.

 

[chris1gill]

Welcome back Nanajo!!! How was the Boardwalk?? By the way, I think they should automate the door down by the pool/fitness area... It's very difficult trying to get the door open & get through on your own....

Anyways, I have some additional information... I do have a rental right now... It's a Quickie, same type I rented down in Florida... I can see where these might travel a bit better than a Jazzy... The Quickie is straightforward in design & would be hard to screw up I imagine... I just love my Jazzy though... The airport we flew into locally will be reimbursing us for the cost of the rental....

The chair's estimate is up to 3600.00 & could grow, depending what they find further... The airline is replacing both the frame & electronics at this point... There's been no question of liability or anything like that... Sad thing is, you could buy the Jazzy online with the same options for 4400.00, with the rental, they're looking at 4 grand... unbelievable.... But, they've been pleasant to deal with... no problems at all actually...

We're thinking of maybe even purchasing a quickie on our own just to use for travelling... we haven't decided on that yet...

So that's the story so far.... Welcome back again Nanajo!!!

 

[Nanajo1]

Chris,
I know what you mean about those doors. If I'm alone and my arms are tired I go the "long" way. I use the door by the back of FF. It has an HP button to open a door. The elevator there takes you to just outside the Belle Vue Room. If you are staying in the Inn I think you can access it from that elevator. I get off at the 2nd floor go throught the lobby and get to the Villa elevators. It may seem a bit out of the way but I can do it "all by myself"! Now getting the ECV into the rom without make a lot of noise is something else. I seem to bang the door open no matter how hard I try.
I had no mobility issues at BWV other than at the Community Quiet pool. There doesn't seem to be any tables that aren't elevated on a platform. I can walk short distances and with help make it up the one step to get to the umbrella tables but I don't think a w/c can get there.

 

[chris1gill]

Hi Nanajo,

What is FF? It's just not coming to me LOL.... I'm trying to picture where that door is you're talking about.... I'll definitely use that one instead of trying the door by the fitness center... Getting through the door with the jazzy is pretty easy, I just bump it open, I'm pretty good at it LOL....

 

[Nanajo1]

Chris,
I'm sorry. FF=Flying Fish Restaurant. If you go along the ouside by the windows it will take you to that door.