"Please, take it back!"

C. S. is ecstatic because she is about to finally rid herself of the $10,000 electric wheelchair that has been sitting in her home, unused and gathering dust, for nearly a year.

It all started last fall when, at C. S.'s request, her physical therapist (PT) ordered for her an electric wheelchair from a private company located in the eastern part of the United States. The PT faxed her evaluation of C.S.'s needs to the company, as they had asked her to do. The evaluation contained detailed and comprehensive information about the specifications C.S.'s wheelchair would have to meet in order for her to be able to use it.

A few months later, C.S.'s new wheelchair arrived, with funds provided by Medicare and a private insurance company. C.S. took one look at this chair and thought to herself, "Something just doesn't look right to me. I think there may be something very wrong with this wheelchair." Because C.S. did not feel safe trying out the new wheelchair by herself, she telephoned a local provider agency to ask for another PT to come and evaluate the usability of the wheelchair (her former PT, the one who had ordered the chair, was no longer available).

The local provider agency sent an occupational therapist (OT) to assist C. S. with evaluating the new wheelchair. The OT concluded that the wheelchair did not meet many of the necessary specifications set out by the PT, and therefore it should be returned. C.S. would clearly not be able to use this wheelchair.

Then the battle began. C.S. says she called the company that provided the wheelchair to ask if she could return it. She was told, unequivocally, no. More months passed. C.S. advocated for herself to the best of her ability, despite the severe and chronic pain she faced due to Multiple Sclerosis. When someone eventually contacted P&A on her behalf, C.S. had the new wheelchair for about eight months. She had never been able to use it. And she had been confined to her bed all of that time.

P&A negotiated with the company that provided the unusable wheelchair. As a result, C.S. received from that company a verbal and a written agreement stating that the company would allow C.S. to return the unused wheelchair and would reimburse Medicare and all other insurance companies that had paid for the chair.

The unusable wheelchair will very soon be returned, the insurance companies reimbursed, and C.S. relieved of the $10,000 piece of assistive technology that taunted her for almost a year. Then she will resume her quest to obtain an electric wheelchair that will allow her to gain back some of the precious independence and mobility for which she has been fighting all along.