Hi Everyone! I just joined today and I am looking for some help. I am a physical therapist who just started working at a facility with many patients who are quadreplegics. We have a pool and it has a chair that swivels so that we can get people in and out. My situation is that we have a 350 pound C6 quadreplegic and I forsee a LOT of difficulty getting her from the water into a rigid upright chair to get her out safely. Does anyone have any knowledge of a piece of equipment that could be used in this situation? Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks so much everyone!

http://www.spinlife.com/critpath/match.cfm...CFRFWagodsVHjnw
most sling lifts should work.

The thing is that she would never have enough control to do this because her trunk control is obviously really poor and she doesnt have hand grasp. The hard part is that since there is no trunk control it will be hard to kind of fold her "in half" at the waist to get her into the position to get into a chair. So, Im not sure what to do.

maybe with a therapist with her at all times, using the lift via remote while helping her stabilize her chest with a gait belt, or two therapists?

yeah, I am definitely going to have 2 people or more. I guess the problem is that getting someone IN the pool isnt the problem. It's getting her OUT and I dont want to risk it not being an appropriate piece of equipment and we are kind of stuck. I think we can use flotation devices and stuff to help out. It's just hard when you have someone who has anxiety already and then you dont have a really sure plan going in. I dont want her to freak out in the pool. I mean, if it were me in her situation, I would want to know that there was a plan that would work for sure, ya know? I was hoping to find a chair that went from laying down (supine) to sitting up so that if we had to, we could just float her on top of it, buckle her in, and then make it upright into a chair. That is my vision but I dont even know if such a thing exists!

You could rig up a cheap 12 volt car winch on a piece of uni-strut or a 3" welded pipe on a swivel [as a overhead lift]........

A little rigging and engineering should work fine.....

Jim

I think i remember they had one in the pool at the spinal unit at Pinderfields, Wakefield, UK which you floated onto laid out and it lifted you up laid out, it connected from the side.

The one i use in our local pool is a seat type, to bend into a seated possition i lift my arms up 45 degrees in front of me which pushes my bum down. i lean forward and hold onto my partner who holds my legs up. she floats me onto the seat and straps me in.

A swimm session was one of the best things i did in rehab

Thanks for the information. I will look into that one!

I'm not sure of the availability of what you're looking for here in the states. I am however glad to see that someone is concerned about having the appropriate piece of equipment. It's kind of rare, believe it or not. What's the weight capacity on the lift you work with, and/or what model is it?