Talk to me about car beds

My sister (in Ontario, same as me) was unable to borrow any SN restraint this past spring to transport her son in a spica cast, the local hospitals had them but wouldn't loan them out anymore due to being manufatured pre 2012.

She ended up purchasing an EZ on (I think that was it) in the US and "smugling" it over. Otherwise they had no options other than ambulances.

HONEYhas3 said:

So if SN seats are not up to current standards, what are suppose to do with SN children?

I am beginning to work with more SN children, is there anyone that I can talk to/work with to help my large client base (I am starting in Sept at the largest rehab facility in Canada for children)?

Click to expand...

Manufacturers, health Canada, and Transport Canada - to name the circle involved.

You need seats to properly transport special needs children before you can do a lot with them.

There is a secondary issue here, and this is the reason why OT teams are the ones usually tasked with recommendations regarding the safe transport of a special needs child...

There are medical and developmental issues to take in to account when talking about special needs seats, and it is the care team who knows and understands the child's health history. I have consulted on a few occasions when the OT team is looking for a seat that meets specific parameters - for example leg depth, or higher weight, or higher height - or that kind of thing.

But my role has not been "how should this child be transported," it has been "we need a seat that can do "x" - do you know of one?" Due to confidentiality issues I am never aware of the full specifics of the case - I may know the child's weight, and at times I am told the diagnosis and how that affects the child's ability to sit in a seat - but this is quite different than actually going in to a unit and trying to set something organized up with a unit that works with special needs kids.

I have other thoughts but I won't post them in this thread so that I don't thread jack completely.

If my kids cooperate I may make a few phone calls tomorrow though. I feel like doing a little digging and I have a couple of specific places in mind. :thumbsup:

Mommy! said:

My sister (in Ontario, same as me) was unable to borrow any SN restraint this past spring to transport her son in a spica cast, the local hospitals had them but wouldn't loan them out anymore due to being manufatured pre 2012.

She ended up purchasing an EZ on (I think that was it) in the US and "smugling" it over. Otherwise they had no options other than ambulances.

Click to expand...

I know that this is past tense now, but just for future reference, there are sometimes regular market seats that can transport a child in a spica cast. We have a special needs forum on the board here and some of our techs are nurses who have in depth knowledge of different special needs so sometimes suggestions can be given for a seat that would work and be readily available in a store. (The special needs forum isn't Canadian specific, but many of those techs would have some idea of which seats are available on both sides of the border.)

Just wanted to update as promised, I checked out our car bed on my unit at work tonight (at the Children's Hospital in my city) and it is a Cosco Dream Ride SE with a November 2007 DOM, it has a manual with it (yay) and expires 6 years after the DOM, so is still good for just over a year. Not likely 2012 compliant, but at least not expired! :thumbsup:

We also had 2 evenflo seats (didn't check their DOMs though) sitting in the storage room but they had big signs on them saying "need to be safety checked, do not use" ... so maybe expired? I didn't have time to dig too much since I was fairly busy today.