“I’ll never forget what your team did for me”
Wednesday, January 26th, 2022
Life for Steve was turned upside-down last year when Guillain-Barré syndrome suddenly left him in intensive care on a ventilator with very limited movements in all four limbs. His independence was gone and he was left facing the isolation and uncertainty of many long months of rehabilitation.
The hospital alerted us to see if we could help, and after working together with their occupational therapy team to assess his abilities via a video call, Liz and Hannah from our StarGaze team sent him a carefully selected range of access equipment and personalised software that had the potential to offer him a vital degree of independence.
“The SpecialEffect team were introduced to me by the hospital OT team at a time when I was almost totally disabled,” said Steve. “They were very approachable, lovely to talk to and immediately understood my situation.”
“They came up with a solution using push buttons attached to a computer that I could operate with my head and my one working foot.”
“It was life-changing. I was able to listen to my radio stations, read my eBooks and watch YouTube. It gave me back the first little bit of independence and control over my life, something I could mentally grab hold of and build on. I can’t express what a difference it made.”
“I’ll never forget what your team did for me.”
Our team continued to support Steve when he moved onto rehabilitation. His mobility improved until he was eventually able to access his computer without the need to use our specialist software and switches, so we’re currently helping him to access Minecraft and other PC games comfortably and independently as he regains finer movements.
We’re so happy that Steve’s quality of life has been boosted by our support and loan equipment. As with all our support, we’ll continue to be there for him if and when needed as his abilities change further during his recovery.
Below: Hannah (top) and Liz from our StarGaze team on a remote support call working alongside the fantastic hospital team to direct the careful positioning of the switches that enabled Steve’s independent computer access. He used his head switch to scroll through control options and his foot switch to make selections.
