A Little About Electric Wheelchairs
March 10, 2010 by Frederick Walton
Filed under Fitness
The electric wheelchair was discovered by the greatest Canadian inventor of all time, George Johann Klein in the 1950s. The electric powered wheelchair came as a great aid to quadriplegics whereas normal wheelchairs were useful only to paraplegics. This instrument was the result of Dr. Klein’s work with a lot of medical specialists, patients, scientists and engineers.
There are plenty of advanced wheelchairs available in the market today. But all these are the variants of this electric powered wheelchair that was discovered five decades ago. It was the second World War that had necessitated the invention. The combined effort of the National Research Council of Canada, the state’s Department of Veteran Affairs and the Canadian Paraplegic Association had resulted in the development of the electric wheelchair. Dr. Klein had consulted a lot of patients, physicians, scientists and electronic engineers before making this ingenious invention.
The wheelchair today is found useful not only by the invalids and quadriplegics; but also persons with cardiovascular irregularities. The models now available are meant for both indoors and outdoors. Some models are compact and portable with various features.
Users of electric wheelchairs do not bound within the limit of quadriplegics and paraplegics, many doctors have suggested it for patients with cardiovascular issues. One desirable feature of the wheelchair is that any one can customize it with their use. They can use it indoor and outdoors as well. Some of them can port easily.
The electric wheelchair is regulated by means of joysticks; puff/sip controls or chin controls. Besides controlling the speed, direction and such other parameters, the electric wheelchair can be made to perform the essential functional motions and movements such as tilting and stretching out which would not have been possible otherwise.
These wheelchairs have some disadvantages too. Repairing an electric wheelchair consumes money and time. Another drawback is its price. It is not affordable for a common man. The price starts from $1000 to $3000 for an ordinary one and can cost around $10,000 for an advanced model.
Are you shopping for an electric power wheelchair? If so, head over to the electric powered wheelchairs web site. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
