Business offers local girl wheelchair repairs free of charge
Karen Miller said she felt an instant connection the first time
she talked with Shauna McKenzie, a Hollister resident who owns RMC
Engineering with her husband in Gilroy. Just days after a Jan. 14
article appeared, in which Miller shared her struggle to get her
daughter Amy’s wheelchair repaired, the McKenzies offered to take a
look at the wheelchair and fix it free of charge.
”
It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders,
”
Miller said.
Business offers local girl wheelchair repairs free of charge
Karen Miller said she felt an instant connection the first time she talked with Shauna McKenzie, a Hollister resident who owns RMC Engineering with her husband in Gilroy. Just days after a Jan. 14 article appeared, in which Miller shared her struggle to get her daughter Amy’s wheelchair repaired, the McKenzies offered to take a look at the wheelchair and fix it free of charge.
“It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders,” Miller said.
Amy, a 13-year-old Rancho San Justo student, suffered from seizures as a baby and toddler. She was heavily medicated to prevent seizures from 5 months old, but she developed cognitively and physically.
Just before Amy’s 4th birthday, she had a seizure and was taken to the hospital. There, she continued to have seizures, including one that lasted nearly an hour. To stop it, the doctors induced a coma. Amy was in it for 10 days. When she awoke, she had lost all of her cognitive and physical function. Though she has regained many of her motor abilities, Amy’s cognitive delays remain.
Though Amy can walk and run, her cognitive impairments make her unable to judge her own safety. When she travels to school on the bus and while she is in her classrooms, she spends much of the time in a manual wheelchair. Miller keeps Amy in the wheelchair when they travel or go places outside their home because it allows her to easily control the teenager who is not cognizant of her safety.
In the past, repairs to Amy’s wheelchair and car seat repairs have been covered by California Children’s Services, a program run by the state Department of Health Services. The repairs were performed at the local Medical Therapy Unit. But in recent months, Miller has been told she would need to get authorization to see a specialist in Oakland before the chair could be repaired, and that the specialist would need to review Amy’s equipment needs before approving any repairs. Since the last time Miller spoke with a reporter, she was still waiting for approval to see the doctor, which she said could take months before getting an appointment.
The bus drivers who takes Amy to school had expressed some concern about the safety of the chair, Miller said. The chair has a tray on it to help keep Amy in it, which she had not been able to use because it was not staying on properly.
Miller dropped the chair off at the McKenzie’s shop RMC Engineering the week after the article appeared. They kept it for two days and did the most pressing repairs, before returning the chair on a Saturday morning.
“They created this nuts-and-bolt system where it locks in and Amy cannot get the tray off,” Miller said, of the McKenzie’s initial repairs. “That night when Amy first saw it, she was looking at it and pulling against it. She cannot get it off.”
The machinists also secured some pieces that were loose, tightened the leg straps, and secured some knee guards.
“We will be taking it back this week because they want to keep it for longer than two days and do more to it,” Miller said. “They really just love giving back to the community and things like that.”
In recent weeks, the Millers have also received many comments from residents offering support. At their church, Hollister Christian Fellowship, the family received a love offering from an anonymous donor.
Miller used the money to open up a medical Fund in Amy’s name at San Benito Bank, at the insistence of a close friend, Bernadette Lucas. Lucas has known the family for years and thought the account would be a way for people in the community to donate funds to the family in hopes that the Millers will someday be able to purchase an electrical wheelchair for Amy and perhaps a van equipped with a lift for the family.
For now Karen lifts the chair into the family’s mini van and then helps Amy into her car seat.
“I so appreciated having the support of the community reaching out and helping out,” Miller said.
