Joshua's taste of freedom cut short

By Paul Yandall

Joshua Stewart will lose his wheels this week.

After a nine-month wait, the 7-year-old sufferer of Duchenne muscular dystrophy was given a taste of freedom when he finally took charge of an electric wheelchair on Monday - but that freedom ends tomorrow.

After the five-day trial, Joshua's need for the wheelchair will be assessed. If he fits the Health Funding Authority's criteria, he should finally get an electric wheelchair in a few months - almost a year after applying for one - says his mother, Gretchen Dainty.

She says the electric wheelchair has given her son the sort of freedom other 7-year-olds take for granted.

"He's never been able to run, and only just been able to walk. He doesn't even have the strength to raise a glass of milk. But when we picked the chair up on Monday, instantly he was a new boy."

The family applied for an electric wheelchair last November after Joshua's condition deteriorated so much that he could not push his manual wheelchair. After an assessment by a therapist and an application to Equipment for Independence, the Government-funded company that supplies the chairs, Joshua was left to wait.

"When we finally get one, we're told it's just for a week trial. It's ridiculous," says his mother.

Joshua's teacher's aide, Joanne Burke, says the wheelchair has given the boy a new lease of life at West Harbour School in Massey.

"It's been a little bit of a test for the little fella," she says. "But now he can get around on his own, go places with other kids.

"He knows it has to go back at the end of the week so he's been a bit grumpy."

Mark von Batenburg, manager of Equipment for Independence, says he has a limited budget for trial equipment and Joshua's long wait was mainly due to people not returning chairs.

"His chair is a specialist, paediatric power-chair and very, very expensive. It has to be ordered from overseas, and because it's non-standard, the delay comes in."

Gretchen Dainty says people with Joshua's condition are lucky to make it out of their teens, and it will have taken almost a year by the time her son finally gets a wheelchair of his own, and some freedom.