Powered Chairs for Tetraplegics

I am C5/6 tetraplegic.  I have owned three electric wheelchairs since 1988. My first wheelchair was a Myra, a large outdoor wheelchair with huge front wheels that enabled you to go just about anywhere. However, this wheelchair was totally unsuitable for house use. The seating was very much like the old NHS chairs which meant it wasn't particularly comfortable and also meant I had to put my arm over the back to keep myself stable, not particularly good for your spine if you do it on a regular basis. The second wheelchair I purchased was a Cheetah. This wheelchair was an indoor/outdoor powered chair which meant I could sit in it all day if I wanted to. Apart from the Recaro car rally seats that this wheelchair was fitted with, the Cheetah was an excellent all-round electric wheelchair. My third and current wheelchair is the Permobil Chairman and is just about the perfect wheelchair for a tetraplegic.  If you have never had an electric wheelchair but are thinking about getting one, take my advice, take your time choosing one, don't rush into it. It is vitally important that you choose the correct electric power chair to suit your needs. A lot of these chairs cost many thousands of pounds. The last thing you want to do is rush into buying one only to find out a year later you have made a terrible mistake. Believe me, it's very easy to do, I've done it myself.

I really don't think that some of the wheelchair manufactures have put enough thought into who is going to be using their products. I have lost count of the times that I've seen wheelchairs fitted with Recaro rally seats.These are car seats, originally manufactured for use in rally cars. This type of seat is unsuitable for the majority of people who need to use a wheelchair. Most people who sit in a wheelchair for long periods of time need a suitable cushion to prevent pressure sores. Rally seats are not really designed to be used with cushions; they are designed to support your body so as to make a comfortable ride when traveling at speed in a sports car. Putting a cushion in one, makes a mockery out of what they were originally designed for.

One of my first wheelchairs had a rally seat fitted on it, the only way we could fit the Roho cushion successfully, was to carve out a space for it, not an easy task believe me. Even then, I found it incredibly uncomfortable to sit in. If you're looking at buying a new electric wheelchair, steer well clear of rally seats. I have included some photographs of the permobil. you can see the different positions the chair can be set at.

For nearly 10 years I have used a power chair called a Permobil. Permobil are not cheap wheelchairs by any means. My wheelchair costs me something like £12,000 when I purchased it in 2000. However I do have various extra components fitted to a my wheelchair. These components include a seat raise, complete tilt of the seating, backrest recline and adjustable foot rests. All of these functions can be performed electrically by the press of a button on the control that also houses my joystick. I find the seat raise function particularly useful when I am fishing, all may be if I am visiting a pub amounts of the sitting at everybody else's level next to the bar. The backrest and tilting seat function enable me to perform pressure relief as well as enabling me to either have a little sleep or relax. Although I don't use the foot rests that much, I do need to adjust them when entering the driving position in my van so this obviously gives me a great deal of independence. The wheelchair is also front-wheel-drive which gives you a lot more maneuverability than a rear wheel drive wheelchair, very handy if you use the wheelchair indoors a lot.

These photographs show the various functions that you can have fitted to your Permobil. Please note that some of these functions may be extra & may not be included in a standard wheelchair.

If you want to drive a vehicle from your Permobil then they sell a wheelchair lockdown system that is securely clamped to the floor of the vehicle. This makes sure that when you are driving your wheelchair is completely secure and you not going to move. It is very important that you have this kind of system in place if you are traveling in a vehicle, especially if you are the driver. This type of system much like the wheelchairs themselves are not cheap by any means. However, they are made especially for Permobil wheelchairs.

Permobil electric wheelchairs are very very expensive. Unfortunately spare parts are not cheap either. To replace the joystick you are looking at several hundred pounds, if one of your motors fails, you're probably not going to get much change out of £900, maybe more. Even tires are expensive, two front tires will probably set you back about £80 for the pair. One of the annoyances with owning a Permobil is that some parts are only available from Permobil themselves, unlike front tyres which can be bought from many disabled outlets, take the back tires for instant, when these need replacing you have to buy the whole unit, i.e. the whole wheel, at around £70 for both units you can see that replacing all of the tires of a permobil will wheelchair will be approximately £150, not cheap. The other thing to take into account is that the tread on the back wheels wears down very quickly if you use these wheelchairs on carpet a lot. If like me you to use your Permobil all the time, expect to change the back wheels at least once a year, maybe twice.

God help you if any circuit boards breakdown, you're looking at hundreds and hundreds of pounds for placement boards. If the joystick goes wrong then it is a throwaway job because they are a sealed unit. By all accounts the new wheelchairs have been designed in such a way that if you have a problem with light controls for instance, the whole unit has got to be replaced. At least with my older version of the chair, individual parts can be replaced.

One other thing to bear in mind if they charge a £90 call out fee plus something like £45 an hour for any work carried out.

Permobil manufacture some really functional power chairs that will suit the needs of most disabled people. However, these wheelchairs come at a price. Before you think about adding electric backrests, tilt functions, seat raises and electric foot rests, you're looking at a starting price of probably £10,000. By the time you've finished customising what you want, you're probably not going to get much change out of £15,000, if not more. These wheelchairs are incredibly expensive and are probably well out of the price range of many people. There are a few cheaper options available, Storm power wheelchairs can also be customised so that they have the same functions as the Permobil, but at a fraction of the price. A Storm 4 wheelchair equipped with tilting seat and backrest is eight had over £6000, obviously if you want electric foot rests and seat raising functions then you can probably add £1000 onto that price, but you can see that that is nearly £10,000 cheaper than a Permobil.

One other important factor to take into account when thinking about purchasing an electric wheelchair is if you want to drive a vehicle while sitting in your chair. Make sure that your intended electric wheelchair fits into the driving space properly, take extra care to make sure that there is space for your foot plates, if you have foot plates that are not adjustable by electric means then you may not be able to fit into the driving position properly. When I drive, I've got to attract my electric foot rests so they are as far back as they will go, if I have them too far forward them I find it impossible to manoeuvre myself into the driver's position. You also want to avoid interfering with the accelerator or brake, this could spell disaster if your foot inadvertently either got stuck on the accelerator, or under the brake. In my old vehicle I had this problem once and it nearly resulted in a small accident as my foot stopped me putting the brakes on properly.

The prices I have listed in this article are approximate, please contact Permobil directly to obtain correct prices

I have listed a few websites that may be of some interest to you if you are looking for an electric wheelchair.

Permobil International website - Storm 4 electric wheelchair - Quickie electric wheelchair