Chair taken
A special pushchair adapted for a preschooler with cerebral palsy disappeared during an emergency, and his family are pleading for its return.
A special pushchair adapted for a preschooler with cerebral palsy disappeared during an emergency, and his family are pleading for its return.
Bhutanese refugee Tila Acharya has lived in Palmerston North for six years with son Sam Rimal, 3, who has the condition.
Because Sam can’t control his body he is usually strapped into a special pushchair with supports to keep him upright, and a padded head brace to stop him injuring himself, and can be fed safely.
But the chair disappeared on November 22 when Acharya was putting Sam into the car at the shops and he began vomiting.
She immediately rushed him to hospital because people with cerebral palsy have trouble keeping their airway clear and Sam would not be able to communicate if he was choking.
Hospital staff gave him the allclear, but afterwards Acharya realised she had left his pushchair on the footpath near Fish Town takeaways, on Ferguson St in central Palmerston North.
She went back, but it was gone. The next day she tried every shop on the street, and checked with the nearby shopping centre and the police, but the chair had not been handed in. The family have waited for it to turn up, but there has been no sign of it.
‘‘I forgot to put it in the car, but I don’t know how it was lost. I don’t know if somebody took it, or kept it.’’
She said it was ‘‘very bad’’ to think about it not being given back.
On Friday, a temporary replacement was provided by Midcentral Health Board’s Child Development Service, but Acharya said it does not have suitable straps to hold Sam in, or pads to hold his head.
She is worried about feeding him safely, and anxious he could easily injure his neck or head and she would not know.
‘‘There is no head control, and no straps in the chest and waist. They said this one [his previous chair] is too expensive.
‘‘If we haven’t found this one, we have to do another [application], but they told me today it takes a long time to process.’’
She had not been able to confirm if there was any possibility of getting the adaptations Sam needed, or if an exact replacement would even be considered, and hoped a public appeal could result in the pushchair being returned.
‘‘He uses it all the time, for going outside, going shopping, and going to kindergarten.’’
Sam’s old pushchair could be turned into a highchair so he could be fed at the table with the family, and had a tray that his kindergarten teachers used to play with him. ‘‘They do activities like playdough and paintings on the tray,’’ Acharya said.
The pushchair has a black metallic frame, silver bolts holding black-padded head supports, and two metal platforms for Sam’s feet.
‘‘English is our second language. It’s hard to understand and handle everything. If something’s lost, it’s hard to know what to do,’’ she said.
The chair can be handed in to the police or the hospital, or information about it can be passed on to Milson Kindergarten.