At Gillette Children’s hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota a new cart has been developed to help kids with cerebral palsy recover from selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery. The procedure involves disconnecting nerve roots and killing off problematic nerve fibers in the spinal cord, so they are not able to send pain signals to the brain as well as to prevent muscle spasms. Following surgery, kids have to spend a few weeks lying prone to let the back heal properly.
So-called prone carts have been available, but when Gillette staff went looking to purchase new ones, they discovered that most are made for adults and don’t have the features they were looking for. Instead, the Gillette team decided to design their own cart, including features such as big front wheels so kids can push the cart themselves, adjustable components to fit different height kids, and a lip that holds the pads from sliding out of place.
Here are folks from Gillette Children’s showing off all the features of the new prone cart:
Via: Gillette Children’s…