Brittany is a constantly smiling, joyful, 29 year old young lady with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. She lives with her Grandmother in a lovely home in a small town in North East Tennessee. Brittany uses a beautiful orange power chair for all of her mobility and positioning due to increased spasticity in her arms and legs. Brittany is unable to transfer (stand up and move from her bed to the chair) from one location to the other without help from her Grandmother. When I was delivering the power chair to Brittany I went into each room to see the doorway width and maneuverability of the chair into each room. I also check to see what setup and equipment Brittany uses in the bathroom/shower. At that time I noticed that Brittany had a pile of pillows around her toilet in a way that would hold her safely on the toilet. Also I looked in the shower and saw the purple very old metal manual wheelchair that was being used for bathing. Brittany is dependent for all transfers, meaning her grandmother must hug her and pick Brittany up, fully, moving her from one location to the other. For Brittany to go from her bed to the toilet and then to the shower her Grandmother would need to pick Brittany up 6 times moving to 3 different surfaces and back. These are difficult transfers and when in the shower in the manual wheelchair it was difficult to wash safely and thoroughly and the chair provides no postural support. Brittany has a Community Health Plan and a private insurance that will pay for her power chair, but nothing else. I knew the perfect device was a Tilt-in-Space shower/toilet chair from a company called Etac. I was able to get a demo chair and take it to show Brittany and her Grandmother. Showing how a transfer from the bed to the chair would then roll to the bathroom, over the toilet, then straight to the shower, then back to the bedroom for a safe, dry transfer. The Tilting Shower chair from ETAC has positioning components for assist with neutral positioning and it can be tilted in the shower so that a full shower, head to foot, can be completed safely and comprehensively.
Through donations we were able to fill this need and get Brittany an ETAC shower chair.
