Boy reunited with lifeline wheelchair
A severely autistic Perthshire boy has had his missing wheelchair returned to him after it was mistakenly taken away by a support worker.
Kade Logan’s mum Kassi-Lee called the police and made a desperate search to find the chair after it went missing from their home in Invergowrie two weeks ago, which left the seven-year-old stranded at home.
Kassi-Lee believed the chair had been stolen by thoughtless youths, however after a week of searching NHS Tayside got in touch with her revealing a “mix-up” had led to the chair being taken away by a worker from the Ninewells’ Tort Centre – a specialist wheelchair clinic.
NHS Tayside has apologised to the family, for taking away Kade’s “lifeline” wheelchair and says it will look into reviewing their collection procedures a result.
The worker had been tasked with collecting Kade’s old wheelchair from his school but instead took the brand new chair parked in a communal close by his home.
On Friday morning, the clinic said the chair would be brought to the family home as soon as possible and as part of the apology have invited Kade to help switch on Ninewells Hospital’s Christmas lights on December 12.
A relieved Kassi-Lee said: “I’m just a bit flabbergasted by everything that’s happened.
“Obviously I’m delighted to get the chair back, untouched. And I’m really pleased to find out it wasn’t actually stolen.
“But I’m baffled by how this was allowed to happen.
“I was at home all day and whoever picked it up never came to knock on our door and tell us what he was doing.
“I had called the clinic the minute I noticed the chair had disappeared and no one said anything about it having been picked up.
“Kade will love being part of the Christmas lights switch-on and that is a really nice gesture. “But this has caused a lot of distress for us. “Poor Kade wasn’t able to go to Dundee to see the Christmas lights, and we were worried he wouldn’t have a chair for his eighth birthday on Wednesday.”
A NHS Tayside spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for this mix-up and apologise to Kade and his family for any disruption and distress this has caused.”
She said a member of staff had tried calling Kade’s mum before the collection, but could not get through.
She continued: “When we were first contacted by Kade’s mum to say the chair was missing, we arranged for his old chair – which was in the school – to be returned to him, while we looked into organising a replacement.
“We then discovered that the new chair had accidentally been brought back to Ninewells and got in touch with Kade’s mum to let her know.
“By way of a further apology we have invited Kade and his mum to be the guests of honour at our festive event at Ninewells Hospital in December where Kade can meet Santa Claus, join in with some carol singing and press the button to officially switch on our Christmas tree lights.
“We hope this will go some way to making up for missing the Dundee light night.
“To ensure this situation does not happen again, we will be reviewing our procedures and looking at introducing ‘calling cards’ if nobody is at home when chairs are to be collected or delivered.”