Thursday, February 13, 2020

WHEELCHAIR NUMBER 10 (Blog dated 26th November 2019)

Hello everyone!!
I am super excited for Vin today, I mean ever since his 10th wheelchair arrived yesterday ๐Ÿ˜

I had my eyes on this one for quite a while ever since I discovered it on https://www.wheelchairindia.com/Folding-Power-Wheelchair

I had been on the lookout for a power cum manual wheelchair with thick polyurethane tyres ever since we encountered the cobbled streets of Italy and most of Europe.

1) Let's talk about the choice of tyres first.
So the new rubberized wheels of folding, manual wheelchair number 9 started getting worn off within the first 3 days of our trip in Europe in 2017. It was kind of worrying and intimidating and we were extra cautious with his wheelchair henceforth as without his wheels, Vineet would be severely handicapped. And we too...
Hence the choice of thick polyurethane tyres for travel


2) Next let's talk about the choice of manual cum power wheelchair.
So last time with the manual wheelchair, it was quite exhausting for Papa to push Vineet all the time as the folding wheelchair had very high hand rests and impossible for Vineet to push himself manually. Hence the choice of a power wheelchair which would also work manually, in case the motor got defective๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐Ÿ˜ฌ In the website video, a person without disability was able to use this wheelchair manually as well without any problem.However , when Vineet tried it on yesterday, the hand rests seem a bit high and we have yet to try out with Vineet on a seat cushion if his hands reach the wheel rims..


3) Next we shall talk about the folding aspect.
Although Vineet's wheelchair number 8 (Karma KP 10.3 ) is also a power wheelchair, it is not easily foldable . We have to remove the battery, then fold the other parts as well .This new chair weighs 42 kgs which is actually heavier than wheelchair no 8 which weighs 37.5 kgs, but we needn't remove the batteries. Just 2 folds and it's ready to be tucked into the car's boot. So we can now go for a picnic and Vineet can enjoy on his own!! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ



Karma wheelchairs are made in Taiwan and assembled locally so I'm told. But this wheelchair is not branded and has been directly imported from China I guess, which is why the costing too has come down to half of wheelchair number 8. And that counts. The cost. While searching for this particular type of wheelchair I stumbled upon the website alibaba.com which is the gateway to Chinese products directly from the mainland. Anyone who has visited this website will know how ridiculously cheap the stuff there are. Of course it's a wholesale market and there are MOQs (minimum order quantity). But if you order a sample piece, the price gets doubled with airshipping. And even then, it stands cheaper than on Amazon or any other similar online shopping site. I could more on this with examples, but this post will become too long. ๐Ÿ˜›☹️So basically , this was a good deal for us, as when you have a person with special needs in your home, expenses touch the sky...But God has been good to us and we are ever grateful that we can afford to buy stuff that Vineet needs all the time. My heart goes out to those parents or children who's special needs are not fulfilled...
Friends, if you support any kind of cause from your hard earned money, do give a thought to children and adults with #specialneeds . #AssistiveDevices can be ridiculously expensive for most...

And a word for those who work for changes in society for a good cause, kindly do something to bring down costs of assistive devices. Thanks๐Ÿ™

And Finally, The part I LOVE the most!!
When this wheelchair moves back, it has a beep warning sound . This is very very necessary in all wheelchairs. It is dangerous for people standing behind a wheelchair if it suddenly starts to move back. Of course there is a beep horn for front on the joystick pad as well.

So here's hoping that this wheelchair comes in handy for us as we love to travel,but we don't get a chance easily๐Ÿ˜’. Lots of things to think about and loads of planning is exhausting!! ๐Ÿ˜ฃ But then, we might as well make the most of it while we are still able to! ๐Ÿ˜Š 

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