Rehab Equipment Help

The nephew's query gives the impression of a devoted person of relatively tender years. His description of the uncle's ailments--and the uncle's status as high risk for non-major surgery--suggests a very elderly (or similarly debililitated) patient, albeit that advanced cartilage damage could have resulted from the uncle's morbid obesity and/or as a result of his other chronic health problems. One wonders if the nephew has really thought his idea through thoroughly; or has considered all the ramifications (one being reasonable life expectancy) involved. The nephew's time could possibly be better spent helping the uncle to exercise his large leg muscles (those being the best muscles to exercise in order to speed weight reduction), but without requiring him to stand and further exacerbate the joint damage (or risk falling)...this before the weight reduction prerequisite to a weight bearing exercise program has been achieved. Nephew does not describe his uncle's paralysis, but there are existing available means (i.e., equipment) of assisting the uncle to stand and to "walk"--without the need to "invent" complicated homemade contraptions of questionable reliability and safety, for example: a tread mill or static walkway with hand rails on both sides. These would have the benefit that the uncle would exercise not only his leg muscles (and heart), but also his upper body muscles as he endeavored to hold weight off his knees. If the uncle needs to rise to standing posture unaided, there are already medically certified mobile chairs that can do this, and with far less risk than...a homemade (and largely untested) devise. The nephew could also assist the uncle to use appropriate leg exercise contraptions which do not require the patient to stand. But, all this aside, it would seem that this nephew's starting point in trying to help his uncle should not be that of attempting/ encouraging self help in any dramatic fashion. Rather, his best information on how to help would come through consultation with medically-certified physical therapy specialists/techs (and related information sources). These are the people who would be best suited by training and practical experience to provide advise about how the nephew could best help the uncle, and about how to help the uncle to help himself. A visit to a physical therapy department would also be worthwhile in helping the the nephew gain better understanding of the types of equipment which could be of benefit to the uncle, and which would not? Just to drive home the point...the nephew should consider: that it is not at all uncommon for patients across the country to incur accidental injuries--often moribund--as a result of help rendered by well-intentioned younger relatives. When degrees of paralysis are involved, such outcomes become even more likely (and more likely to be severe). Again, physical therapy specialists and medical practicioners are in the best possible position to advise as to which are reasonable approaches to assisting a patient, and which would be irrational or counter-productive. Finally, the nephew did not state whether or not his uncle is in positive agreement with his nephew's proposed undertaking. This is important because it is eminently likely that the uncle, in addition to his physical afflictions (including chronic pain &or absense of sensation), must contend as well with bouts of depression and related symptoms of affective disorder! For such an individual, attempts to assist which are overly optimistic or overly ambitious (which press the patient too hard) run the risk of driving the patient deeper into emotional distress and, with that, impede rather than enhance recovery or improvement...this even before the prospect of actual "rehabilitation" becomes a realistic possibility. Again, the medical/physical specialists are likely to have much better advise to offer than typical engineers posting in a discussion forum.

One must also consider the possibility that the "idea building on the nephew" finds its motivation not so much in altruistic or filial concern as in some perception of personal opportunity. Such opportunistic possibilities would be too numerous for any attempt at delineation here but suffice it to say, that even if that is the case, experimenting on a gravely disabled patient would be at odds with a professionally acceptable "engineering" approach to converting a germinating idea into a tangible invention. A more reasoned approach which the nephew might adopt, would be to consider the uncle as an invaluable, potential source--after he has recovered sufficiently--of information needed to define the requirements which the invention must fulfill. After all, the inventor's primary idea should be to find out what will, or what would, work (if not immediately for the uncle, then for others in similar plights) from persons (such as the uncle) in the best position to judge based on experience; not what might not work (from a patient upon whom an "invention" is "inflicted" while he or she is still in the process of gaining and assimilating the experience).

Both are good writer

Thanks, fellow engineer, for the warning.

Exactly, this why I looked to forums for help. I needed to find out what resources to exploit and what dangers to avoid. In answer to mysteries unsolved, my uncle had a similar idea for a rolling chair with a bike seat mounted on top to allow him to sit in a situp position and have legs hanging down or resting on a bar near the base. life expectancy, who cares about that. Help is help. I'm not going to argue about that because I know from a business prospect or just as well financial, noone wants to blow money, time, and effort on someone about to die. Thats why people get left on the battle field and lose appendages so fast. Severing an arm and sending a soldier home is about 15 weeks faster and 2000 less than picking out the shratnel and hoping he can fight the same after welding a pincer to him. Its simple.

Now, my uncle has had a treadmill, a step climber, and several wheel chairs. He cant use the machines because he cant support his weight and the few lbs allowed on the knees is incurring too much bone grinding. And, the speed settings for the machine dont allow for any leniency when cramps happen and sharp pains suddenly fire. The wheel chairs he had before couldnt support his weight or his size. The one he is right now has been ripped apart and rewelded to accomodate his size but it is deteriorating because he is probably over weight by 50-150 lbs than what the machine is prepared for. The commercial advertises towing capacity, not work load capacity. Everything is wearing out pretty fast as it is. Speeding up the recovery process will help a lot with preserving these machines for at least their use.

His mental state is positive. Hes tired of sitting in his wheel chair for the past 3 1/2 years and hes tired of having to bind his legs when they swell after walking. I had suggested exercising the upper body in hopes of reducing some of the weight because my own logic AND experience tells me that the body will lose weight wherever it is as long as it is using it.

What still need from anyone is a place to go to for this information or someone to talk with about how to go about this design and how to avoid dangers. Is there anyone with any of this help out there?

Hola. Help is Help, I think that phycicians have the expertice for helping your uncle, but beside that you may have an idea that may help him and others. I will recomend you to draw your idea and have it posted, so, may be the forum may come up with something for help your design.

When coming to health issues you have to be carefull but you can not discard all the aproaches, so go ahead and try to have your drawing on paper. All the good inventions have started as dreams and as ideas... so, if you can think of it may be is possible that it may work... =)

Help is a good diet ( I know from sure he is trying everything), maybe an excersice pool, weight machines adapted to bed or coach chair. Also I have seen a teraphy that uses a bed wich moves or vibrate so the patients move too ( they claim patients make excersise this way and may lost weigth). maybe if some one do excersise next to him he will not feel alone or it make the excersise more enjoyable.

There are videos with chinasse (oriental) muscular and breathing excersises. I guess is tai-chi excersise.

Hope your uncle gets better and remenber " BE BOLD AND MIGHTY FORCES WILL COME INTO YOUR HELP". Regards.

Luis

He is using a lot of pills and my aunt prepares about 97% of his meals. Basically the diet works by forcing my uncle's body to have certain defficiencies with vitamins and then dump excess fat after burning some also. I have no clue how it works but the bathroom smells. bad. He does get all the nutrition he needs. The vitamins and things that are leaving the body are from the skin that is built up and all the other body tissues that are slowly reducing in size. Thats probably why his legs have cracked skin when they swell up because its just too thin and not built to withstand any tension like regular skin layers. I'm not a biology major but from observance that seems to be what is happenning. I will email my aunt to start trying to do simple exercises with him. I know he works out some and does some body toning but I dont think he does any of that with my aunt. Thank you for your helpful comment. Thanks also to the post about medical supplies and harnesses.

No problem. suerte. Luis

What a set of dillemmas your uncle (and you) have found yourself in. Perhaps the best answer you can reasonably hope for is something akin to what you have already done. Upscaling and ruggedizing an existing piece of equipment...i.e., stand-up chair devise....then--possibly--further modify for ambulation. One would also need to consider the "super-chair stander's" ability to pass through doors and such...which might entail a modification of the residence? I suggest this stepwise approach because it might be much more difficult to arrive at the final solution in one phase. A gradual, build and improve and build some more would also have the advantage that it could bring sooner relief with promise of more later, something that should give encouragement to the patient.

I agree that some kind of sketch might be helpful...a problem being that readers have only themselves to envisage as the patient for purpose of trying to understand exactly what the limitations are that your uncle endures. But I do admire your tentacity in the face of a very difficult problem to try to post on a web site.

Here's another idea to consider. It just might be--and probably is--the case that the best possible machine that you could reasonably hope for would be two (possibly more) large, burly men acting as your uncle's stand and walk aparatus. This would seem to answer all problems (except perhaps narrow doorways) you seem to be hoping to solve. The only real problem with burly men machines is that they can become costly over time. But what is those big strong guy's could be replaced by more diminutive human machines. And perhaps fewer, perhaps only one, perhaps you alone? Perphaps it's worth considering, not an auto ambulation devise, but, rather an handling assist devise. (Think: from stretcher to guerney, rather than from stretcher to rehabilitated.) Who knows? Maybe a devise that facilitates your "handling" of your uncle will also provide the insights you seek to devise an all new self ambulation devise? This might be a case where something is better than nothing, and also better than all (or nothing)!

I saw a show where a motorcycle racer had outfitted a monster truck for standup controls to let his legs absorb more of the impacts of jumping & reducing back & neck strain.

You are on the right track

a safety harness w/a framework to support his upper body, will work

Sort of a stand up wheelchair

fall protection or climbing equiptment, medical rehab stuff of course, would be sources for most if not all you need.

Good job

keep posting, there is help out here for you

Some people amazes me, Here's a guy who really wants to help a relative and has tons of good intentions. He just keep forgetting that good intentions are the best and fastest way to hell. from your thread it is quite clear that you know next to nothing about the medical implications of your proposed treatment, and maybe less about mechanics, because if you would have known anything at all you would have known that there are large number of mechanical devices manufactured by established and recognized designers and there is no need to invent anything. Best you can do for your uncle is to pay/get him the best professional assistance available, and help him comply with his doctor's instructions. THAT is the difficult part. Give him the strongest moral support, that's what he needs. But just don't try to kill him with your good intentions. and don't mess with things you know nothing about. God bless your uncle,

Wangito

That was very very harsh! Something to be said for a pleasant but truthful bed side manner here. But I have to agree with your opinions. It sounds dangerous to the Uncle's health. Perhaps the money isn't available for the extemely high priced medical devices his Uncle needs. The price for medical equipment exceeds many patients ability to aquire if insurance doesn't cover it.

My uncle has already tried these things. Key word is "tried". That means hes had them in his possession and used them. Now the tricky part here about the conclusion is that my most previous says they didnt work. K? Thats why my uncle and I have been working on something to get the job done better. When the airplane was built, everyone, I mean EVERYONE, thought sailboats and steamships were the shiznit. When they were built, noone understood how to make water boil and thus several tons of steel glide across the ocean. People got scalded and melted in the testing of water boilers. People fell hundreds of feet out of the air without a parachute because of cheap hardware. Now, I really am not just going to throw my uncle in to a crazy looking walker on wheels and ecpect or miracle and then say he was an american war hero when it collapses on him. Thats why I'm on this forum here. This is why I am talking to University professors, visiting the libraries often, and tracking down physicians and doctors. I dont care if someone else does 99.9% of the design. my sn is ultbadass and my friends call me a badass with reason but I dont use that as an excuse. Now, hopefully more people are reading all comments and not just picking out smartass literary arguments with they see first. And, if you really want to analyze on a level of any sort, get to know me and the situation first. And, please, just help. Thats all I'm here for!

Here Here

The trick to rehab is getting the patient to do the work & if that means modifying an exsisting design or starting w/a clean sheet of paper, do it !

If you can get him in a pool, that is by far the easiest on the joints, But he's a big boy, If that is just not possible...

if there is something that is close, use it as a jump off.

It sounds to me like a frame on wheels to carry his weight, this would @ least get him out of his bed/chair & moving about.

If you/he don't like that, provide as many details as possible, pics if you have them, for what you would like?

Your uncle is the 1 who has to buy in, f*** everyone else!