Haynes Guide to wheelchairs

This weekend the children (well they call me their Haiti Dad…) were away.  They had rounded up a few of the other expats and decide to go stay on the deserted island – wild camping amongst the rats (well it isn’t called Il a Rat) for nothing.  Anyway to relax I decided on some DIY.  I went down to the hospital on Saturday morning and let myself into the Respite Care centre.  My ‘daughter’ had painted a couple of the bedrooms, but the window shutters now needed painting and she gave me a list of a few other items.  It did not start well, I pulled a muscle in my back moving one of the beds – a great big old hospital bed, metal everywhere, no doubt state of the art in the 70s.  I’m sure it would have been fine but the wheels were long gone, as I found when dragging it across the floor.

I got the painting finished, just, but wasn’t up for anything else so walked back to the Village (the ‘children’ had the vehicle for the weekend) which maybe helped.  Anyone to be sure I dived into some home cured bacon (really) and dosed up on ibuprofen.  By late afternoon the back seemed better so I had a crack at assembling a wheelchair.  I had brought one back on the Friday as a ‘stand-by’ should I finish all my DIY.  I was warned the instructions were a bit ‘iffy; but how hard can it be, we’ve had IKEA furniture before…? Well pretty hard actually.  It was designed in the USA and manufactured in China.  I think the instructions were written by a guy in a top office in China though.  Rubbish. 

When I realised how rubbish the instructions were I started to take some photographs to help others, so it took a little longer than it might have done.  Still, 3 hours is excessive, no?  Yes it was complicated, but now I realise why, so very adjustable; from footrests to seat height and angle, armrests, back support, headrest, thigh support, chest support and feeding tray.  They can be tailored in every different way.  Great engineering for sure, and a gift of course, so no real complaints.  Now that I have cracked one, I think I could do another inside an hour… 

So satisfying, despite my frustrations with the instructions. 

The story is far from over though, building is just the first part, you then need (especially with disabled children) to customise it to fit.  What you can see here is a pool noodle, square section drainpipe and inside some of my spare pillow which luckily happened to be made of foam.