The retired pharmacist Ronald Gerard and his wife from Omaha were looking for an easier way to get her from the main house and into their car in the garage which is at a lower level than the main house. Ronald’s wife is a wheelchair user and their previous way of getting her from the house to the garage, was a stair glide.
The stair glide required Ronald to manually lift his wife from her wheelchair onto the stair glide, from stair glide to wheelchair again and then from wheelchair and into the car every time they were going out – and the same number of transfers had to be done when they returned home, ie. a total of 6 manual transfers per drive.
In hopes of finding a more suitable solution to avoid the difficult and ergonomically risky lift, Ron contacted Liftup Inc. distributor Kohll’s Pharmacy & Homecare. Kohll’s suggested Ronald a variety of platform lifts and ramps but they would take up too much space in their garage which was not a sustainable solution.
Director of Operations at Kohll’s, mentioned the 2-in-1 convertible solution, FlexStep, to Ronald. Unlike the other lifts and ramps, the FlexStep would only take up the similar space as their existing staircase. Ronald visited Kohll’s and was presented to their FlexStep demo model and he was convinced – he ordered a FlexStep immediately.
After the installation of FlexStep at his home, Ronald tells us how simple it is to use, for both him and his wife. When the lift is not in use it transforms itself back into stairs and Ronald can easily and quickly get back and forth from the garage to the main house.
The FlexStep lift has helped Ronald and his wife a lot, since he must only transfer her 2 times instead of 6 times when they are going out. Now, he must only lift her into and out of their car as she can get from the main house to the garage by herself while she remain seated in her wheelchair – and Ronald still has plenty of space for both his cars in the garage!
The FlexStep stairlift is designed to function both as an ordinary staircase and as a wheelchair lift. Developed and manufactured by Liftup, the FlexStep is flexible and equally useful for pedestrians and wheelchair users alike. FlexStep is an innovative 2-in-1 solution and saves space compared to installing both a flight of stairs and a separate lift.
Read more about FlexStep