Page 21 - Mobility Management, January/February 2021

a misdirection. All this focus on weight is sometimes at the failure to address the more important issue of setup. From my perspective as a clinician, we need to understand the most efficient setup. I think as people have continued to learn more about optimizing setup, getting better weight distribution, making more efficient component choices for environment of use, those sorts of things, it has enabled users who might have previously been confined to other types of equipment to [choose] something that might be more mobile for them, easier to propel, easier to transport, etc.”
Jeromy Brown, a Ki Mobility Product Manager, knows all about optimal chair setup. At 17, he sustained a C5-6 spinal cord injury, a level of injury that frequently leads to power chair use. “I was told I would never be able take care of myself again,” Brown said. “I’m 100 percent independent. I went to college, traveled the world with the U.S. Wheelchair Rugby team, got married and had a child. I’m living my life.”
Upon joining Ki, Brown talked with Whelan about improving how he sat in his ultralight chair. “I said I’ve got to be stable in this chair because I’ve got a 4-year-old who’s always leaping at me. I need to stay in my chair, because I don’t have the function to get off the ground. My brother has children as well around that same age, and they just gang up on me.”
Now an Ethos user, Brown said, “I wake up, go to work, to the
grocery store and run errands. I get home at the end of the day, and I’m exhausted. Like most parents, I have a child who just wants to play. The difference is when I added Ethos to the equa- tion, I feel like I increased my energy and efficiency.
“With Ethos, I don’t feel all the vibrations caused by pushing on various surfaces such as roads, sidewalks and curb cuts. [Vibrations] add up over the day and reduce my energy. That additional energy at the end of the day allows me to chase my child around or help
my wife do the dishes... it’s invaluable. In addition, I am able to be more efficient because I have the ability to optimize my chair setup to maximize propulsion efficiency throughout the life of the chair.”
The ideal ultralight, then, is a combination of inspired engi- neering and an expert setup fine-tuned to each user.
“There were long discussions of ‘Do we put him in a power chair or a manual chair?’” Brown said of his time in rehab. “I was lucky enough to have a physical therapist who pushed me to be in a manual chair. Unfortunately, I was put in a giant titanium chair that I struggled to get around in. Once I got home I wasn’t able to change the setup of the chair so I could get around. That’s the nice thing about Ethos: Yes, it’s a performance chair, but if you put a [person with a] new injury in it and if they get home and realize it’s not set up to accommodate their needs, they can make the adjustments needed to get the optimal setup.” m
ServingSafely Ad-6.5x4.625.indd
MobilityMgmt.com
Untitled-3 1
1
7/21/20 1:20 PM
MOBILITY MANAGEMENT | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021 21 7/21/20 1:46 PM