I’m going to have to literally destroy my disabled son’s non-operative equipment to get safe equipment.
The title is it. My son has been on a ventilator his entire life and will be for the rest of it. He has a mobile vent “carrier” that has essentially been unusable since November of 2024, he got it in November of 2023 so it worked for a year. The carrier is secured by a literal metal clip. The ventilator itself is like 15 pounds. The problem is the clip literally cannot hold the weight of the ventilator, and while using it the clip will literally come undone while I’m carrying it. My son’s vent is connected to him via his trachea and it can literally rip it out, which is fucking life threatening.
His company has came and “fixed” it like 5 times now and the fix literally works for a day or 2, then it goes right back to shit. They claim that’s all they can do and after talking to other disabled parents I’ve come to find that for many of us to get properly working equipment we have to literally destroy the equipment to the point that they can’t cheap out and just bend the clips back or something cheap. So I’m lathering his fucking carrier case in peanut butter and letting my dogs go too fucking town on it. It’s functionally inoperable at this point and his mother and I don’t even trust to use it so it’s not like we’re actually effecting his quality of life by not having it.
Pic included so you can see the literal frustration.
Edit for those commenting, the equipment having the issue isn’t necessary for him, it just makes moving him easier. He’s not in any active danger by this not being fixed, it’s just frustrating because instead of being helpful the equipment is a hindrance. There have been several suggested comments and messages with suggestions and I’m welcome to them and a karabiner seems like a good quick fix. That being said I personally pay for this shit already, insurance comes out of my check, and is further covered by American Tax Payers via BCMH and I should be able to get the shit properly serviced for an incredibly SIMPLE fix that probably would cost them pennies in comparison to what they are being paid for.