Adaptive Mobility and Positioning Blog

Saad is a young man who just transitioned to our adult services from his school program in September 2017, and even though I try hard not to have favorites, Saad tests my resolve; he never fails to brighten my day. When Saad first arrived, he only had the wheelchair he came in. We put him in an old-style Rifton XL Pacer. Saad has cerebral palsy, involving a complex history with both his knees requiring...

Partial weight-supported treadmill training (PBWSTT) has widespread application particularly among patients who are not yet able to practice over-ground gait training. Unfortunately the equipment required can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Until now. One of the valuable new features of the New Pacer is a base designed for treadmill use. The upper frame of the New Pacer clips easily into the...

Contributed by Rachel LeBlanc. Our Dad, Grandpa Jim, suffered a stroke at age 85 and lost most of the use and control of his left side, especially his left arm and leg. We soon faced the fact that he was no longer able to walk or stand, and began learning how to move him from his bed to a wheelchair or the commode, and back. The toll this took on our backs and shoulders was immediately apparent. Right at...

I was privileged to interview David the other day. We conversed by email since his speech is affected. David and his wife Ashley are survivors: their six-week-old son Jayvas died suddenly in 2009; one year later, at a 2010 New Year’s Eve celebration, David had a choking accident resulting in an anoxic brain injury. He was in a coma for a month and a half. Coming out of the coma at a rehab hospital...

Here is another story about a courageous man who is working to overcome his physical limitations through adaptive ambulation after a TBI. We were privileged to see Casey use his new Pacer XL Adult Gait Trainer for the first time during a recent visit Casey made to the Rifton Equipment facility, accompanied by his wife Jennifer. Physical disabilities did not stop Casey from achieving an upright position in...

Sean Carter is a fighter. After sustaining a traumatic brain injury, he completely lost the ability to walk, talk, or control anything but his index finger. He did not, however, lose hope for recovery. Sean believed he would walk again. Dr. Karen McCain agreed. She decided to get him ambulatory by getting him into an XL Pacer Adult Gait Trainer. She knew he needed to walk a lot more than weekly therapy...

Sean Carter’s plans didn’t include traumatic brain injury. A DWI truck accident, in which Sean was a passenger, changed all that. Besides the multiple fractures and internal injuries, Sean suffered a traumatic brain injury, completely losing the ability to walk, talk or control anything but his index finger. But Sean Carter doesn’t believe in giving up. His long road back—through...

  Sean Continues TBI Rehab towards Full Recovery Watch a followup video to Sean Carter Walks Again Part 1: A Journey through Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation, showing the progress Sean Carter made in just 12 months of rehabilitation, using Rifton’s XL Pacer Adult Gait Trainer to learn to walk again following an accident which left him with a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). Read about his...

Submitted by Steve Merrill, Special Education Teacher We all remember the first words spoken from the moon in July of 1969 by astronaut Neil Armstrong, “That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.” But he didn’t get there without the right equipment! If you’re just beginning to use adaptive mobility equipment and you’re frustrated by slow progress...