travis@cs.washington.edu (Travis Craig) (02/27/90)
Index Number: 6954 Situation: An elderly friend of ours is engaged in an ongoing struggle to live independently in the face of steadily decreasing use of her extremities. She was recently at the point of moving very slowly with a walker, falling occasionally, and having a live-in assistant to help her out of bed, to prepare meals, and to drive her places. She has broken her leg in a fall and cannot walk at all, at least for now. Experiments at the hospital have shown that it takes 3 people to get her from bed to chair. Analysis: Perhaps I'm naive, but I can't believe there aren't better methods and/or devices out there that would let her live at home and move between bed, wheelchair, toilet, bath, and other seating with the help of an assistant. Request: I'm going through my hardcopy archives of misc.handicap as quickly as I can, searching for ideas and sources, but I'd surely appreciate any help you can give me. I'm interested in personal experiences, information on methods and equipment, and/or pointers to such information. I'm aware that the VA might be a source of such information and am vaguely familiar with the rehabilitation engineering establishment, but I'd appreciate any advice on how to approach or get information from those organizations. Please reply by e-mail. I'll summarize to the net. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Travis Craig, Computer Science, University of Washington travis@cs.washington.edu -----------------------------------------------------------------
Pandora.Nigh@hnews.fidonet.org (Pandora Nigh) (03/06/90)
Index Number: 7091
Hi Craig, there are a couple of things that can be done to make transfers
easier. Firt and simplest is a transfer board. This is a board that
is slightly sloped at the ends so that it is easy to scoot up and over
it. The board is placed next to the person and across to the chair
or bed that the person wishes to tranfer to. then all they have to
do is slide over to the other place. This can be done with the help
of one assistant. There are also hoist type transfer system, the most
common one is called a Hoyer lift. This works on a hydrolic system.
It does require an attendant and you can rent them from medical supply
companies. There are other lift devices that are similar to a crane
and are mounted from the ceiling and these are electronically operated
and are very exspensive but can be independently operated. If you want
more info on this type of system let me know and I'll dig out my files
on them and give you the addresses and specs on several manufacturers.
Pandora
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