The magazine PARAplegiker reports – Swiss company develops a smart relief cushion
Bettina has had a spinal cord injury since a motorcycle accident 25 years ago and uses a wheelchair. She leads an active life, works part-time in the field for a medical technology company, and is a peer counselor specializing in nutrition at a clinic for neurorehabilitation and paraplegiology. The 59-year-old lives in Grenzach-Wyhlen, near the Swiss border. Her hobbies include handcycling, swimming, painting, and reading.
Over the years, Bettina developed scoliosis. The curvature of her spine put varying amounts of pressure on her ischial tuberosities. The high pressure on her right ischial tuberosity led to her first pressure ulcer in 2012: “To heal the wound, I was instructed to lie down in bed to relieve the pressure. That was my first experience of lying down for long periods of time.“ What remained was a scar and the doctors’ advice to plan regular relief by lying down in everyday life. For Bettina, this meant a lot of planning and little spontaneity. ”Instead of having lunch with my colleagues, I looked for a suitable place to lie down. I often had to skip meeting up with friends in the evening if I hadn’t rested enough during the day. But despite all my discipline and efforts, the scar kept reopening at regular intervals, which led to even more restrictions and limitations.
It was very depressing,” Bettina recalls.
In the fall of 2022, the scar opened up again and developed into acute pressure sores by January 2023, which meant that Bettina spent half a year mostly lying in bed at home and—after an operation—in the hospital.
“Eating, drinking, brushing my teeth, washing—I had to do all the things of daily life lying in bed.
I was totally dependent on other people,” says Bettina, describing this difficult time.
When she was discharged from the clinic, the doctor gave her strict instructions to lie down every four hours to relieve the pressure. “This means my day is strictly timed, and it still has a major impact on my life.” Bettina has been friends with the founder of the Swiss start-up RELiYOO from Winterthur for many years. She is immediately willing to test his seat cushion for pressure ulcer prevention. “It adjusts itself fully automatically to me and my buttocks and allows me to sink into the cushion in the best possible way. I sit on air chambers that automatically adapt to my buttocks. And above all, they are constantly alternately relieved of pressure, which allows the vulnerable areas to be regularly supplied with blood. My pelvic obliquity can be partially corrected by special settings, giving me good seating stability.” Bettina presented her experiences with pressure ulcer prevention at last year’s DMGP conference in Weimar. She says: “I now sit in my wheelchair for up to twelve hours a day and my skin is coping very well. This is a huge improvement in my quality of life and I hope to have my seat height increased further so that I can lead a safe, comfortable and active life without constantly watching the clock and without fear.”