For the last year I have been unhappy with Sophies wheelchair, we always put her in it in the correct position but she manages to push her pelvis forward and her lower back ends up at a 45 degree angle to the back of the seat. Try sitting like this for a while yourself and youll see how uncomfortable it is! The problem for Sophie is that although she is the one who pushes herself into this position, she doesnt have the strength or the know how to push herself back into the correct position again! After discussing several options with wheelchair services they put a new lap belt on last summer, although it helped slightly our little madam has soon worked out how to push her way forwards with that on too! I was told in December by wheelchair services that the only other option was to put knee blocks on! I hated that idea as she is already so restricted in her wheelchair as it is, she loves having the freedom of kicking her legs out! Thankfully the physio and OT also agreed that it wasnt good for her as she would still be pushing against the knee blocks and would end up damaging her hips! Wheelchair services said they had no other options available! To cut a long story short I managed to get an independent company come out who quoted for a brand new seat to go on her existing base, the new seating system would work in a way that the cushion she sits on would be at a slight incline so that in order to push forwards Sophie would also have to push upwards which would be impossible for her and therefore she would stay sitting in the correct posture! The quote came through at £1200 which I sent to wheelchair services yesterday explaining as they had no other options to put Sophie in the correct posture that I thought they should look at this other seating system as an option. Needless to say I have had an email back today saying they can of course adapt her current seating system to suit without having to put knee blocks on! They will in no way be paying £1200 for a new seating system as the one she has can do the same thing! Why didnt they just do that in the first place rather than making us wait a year and find out the solution for ourselves before offering it! Makes me mad! Hopefully within the next month we will get an adapted seat that will ensure Sophie is always sat in the correct position!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:37:07 +0000
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