Back to Work Thanks to a High-Tech Wheelchair

Is what you do for a living dangerous? For police officers, firefighters and race car drivers, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" They know they could face a life and death situation at any time.

Myron Rosner, 47, owner of SIZ Construction in Miami never used to think his job was dangerous. That is until one day in August of 2001 when a freak accident on the job left him paralyzed from the waist down. The ladder he was standing on snapped, sending him plunging three stories to the bottom of an elevator shaft. He broke his back and spinal cord in the accident.

It wasn't an on the job accident that left Jim Hoy, 48, a project manager for Housing Visions of Syracuse, N.Y. paralyzed. He was hurt during a motocross practice. "Due to the motorcycle's mechanical failure, my bike failed to make it across a gap," he explains. "When I landed, I had no feeling in my legs and knew I was in trouble."

After long rehabilitations, both men returned to work, but it wasn't easy. "I would show up at a job site to meet with a prospective client and I would have to push myself around in grass, dirt and stones, and I would get stuck," says Rosner. "I couldn't make it up curbs or up steps. As a human being who is used to doing everything for himself, I felt helpless and totally dependent on other people."

"I was frustrated," adds Hoy. "I mean, what good is a construction director who can't make it across a job site on his own."

Fast forward a couple of years, and what once seemed like huge roadblocks for both men no longer are an issue. In addition to running a successful construction business, Rosner is a City Councilman in North Miami Beach, Fla., plays tennis, dances, travels and even rides a trike motorcycle. Jim is back to moving independently around building sites, riding a hand crank bicycle, and with summer coming to an end, he's looking forward to the annual tradition of going apple picking with his family.

Both men have a new lease on life now thanks to the INDEPENDENCE iBOT 4000 Mobility System, a high tech all-terrain wheelchair with a combination of features that is unlike any wheelchair ever created. Through an integrated combination of sensor and software components and multiple computers that work in conjunction with gyroscopes, the chair is capable of carrying riders across sand, gravel, grass and other uneven terrain; it easily climbs curbs and staircases; and can raise the user to an "eye-level" position with a standing person so they can hold a conversation, even while on the move.

"I can do most everything I want to and do things people would never expect I could do," says Rosner. When he goes to job sites, he uses the 4-Wheel Function to circle the property, inspecting plumbing and electrical trenches. He also uses it for climbing over curbs. He switches the iBOT Mobility System to the Stair-climbing Function to get inside the homes or buildings he's constructing or remodeling. "I raise it up on two wheels in the Balance Function when I meet clients so I can talk to them face to face," he says.

Hoy adds, "I was blown away when I first saw what the iBOT could do while still in rehab. Now that I have one I'm even more impressed. It has given me back my independence."

For more information, or to make arrangements to take the INDEPENDENCE iBOT 4000 Mobility System for a test drive, click here.

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