My wheelchair repairman regaled me a story actually this afternoon as he fixed the hardware that holds my joystick on (I lost a few screws. Whatever :p). And I told him I wanted to hear a good one, so here’s what I got : ) I should mention he looks like an old Viking warrior.
So there was this guy who got really wasted at a hotel party recently. He was probably drinking too much (Wild Turkey), especially for a guy who only has control of 25% of his body (he was a quad. It’s super easy to flub up physically if you‘re intoxicated AND paralyzed). And you know how hotel hot tubs tend to be built into the floor? Well, that’s the kind of hot tub we’re talking about.
So as the night progressed and the drunks started wandering towards the hot tub like zombies following the stench of flesh, the guy in the 300lb+ powerchair followed. And per the mental image you’re probably forming in your head right now, the drunk guy in the wheelchair totally forgot about the spatial/gravity thing and facepalmed it - chair and all - into the hot tub (and no, there’s no YouTube video for this, unfortunately). I’d like to think there was a lot of splashing and flailing involved though….
So his drunk friends somehow rescued him out of the water, but the chair still got submerged, rendering the chair’s ability to turn-on and work (after they took it out) totally moot. They had no choice but to let it sit, cross their fingers, and hope it dried out. It’s crazy, and it may have taken 4 days, but it totally did work again; much to his insurance company’s relief ($11,000 grand baby).
I gotta say that this guy pretty much experienced one of my biggest fears since needing to use a wheelchair (driving accidentally into water). I bet he was hella embarrassed though, and that, as we all know, is way worse :p
- Medical hydrotherapy, on Disaboom
- Young macho men with serious injuries often abuse alcohol, Disaboom
- Marijuana IS safer than alcohol, on Disaboom
