I am writing this letter to thank you for your Ease Seating System - Your product has helped a number of my patients avoid at least months of bedrest and multiple surgeries to close stage 3 or greater bedsores, let alone all of the other indignities of being considered sick. I am happy to share my experience with these 3 of my more memorable patients.

The first patient who used your Comfort Alternating Pressure Cushion developed his first decubitus - 3 right hip bedsores - as he was getting back to wheelchair use after he fractured the left hip. The fractured hip and later surgery required bedrest for several weeks due to the osteoporosis of the involved area. The patient who was a working professional, became paralyzed from an arterial venous malformation on his spinal cord in the 1975. He was active in his wheelchair since the paralysis; he was doing yard work, driving, traveling in his RV with his wife, physically going to and managing a large number of local business properties he owned and remained extremely healthy in spite of being in his late sixty's by the time he had the bedsores develop. The 3 sores were red spots, which quickly broke down to the bone as the patient as a very large boned heavy tall man. The largest decubitus over the ischium was almost as large as my head and the two smaller ones were larger than my fist. He suffered through debridements, wet to dry dressings, IV and oral antibiotics, bedrest with frequent turning and whirlpool treatments. His wounds waxed and waned in different stages of healing but no amount of weight shifting, two different high profile air cushions or weight loss made a significant difference in the healing. Granulation tissue would start and the bases would fill in, then he would be up in the l5 minute range, have friction with a transfer or not be turned timely and have complete loss of all of his gains. After almost a year of dealing with the wounds and all of the fall out, including a very grumpy patient (and grumpy wife), I found out about the Ease comfort cushion and asked the patient to consider purchasing the wheelchair cushion. It was quite easy to have him fitted in spite of his great size and weight. He had the wheelchair seating system in place on his electric wheelchair within several weeks and was able to restart his gradual getting out of bed program, based on his endurance and blood pressure. He also steadily healed his wounds and all 3 were completely healed by five months. He found out about the mattress system and got that to complement his daytime routine after he returned home. The patient was able to spend the last years of his life up and around, driving his grandchildren to the movies, managing his business properties, going to church, shopping, going camping from his RV until he died suddenly in his late 70's from a heart attack. He did not have pain, increased spasticity, reduced range of motion or keloid formation at the site of his wounds. He got his life back - I rarely saw him in the office after he healed his wounds as he was normally a busy active man who seldom came into the office.

The second patient had a new injury, she was a young single working mother. She had a family of many nurses who worked in a major trauma center and they did not want her to suffer from decubitus. These family members knew that as a C6 quadraplegic who also had fractured lumbar vertebra and her pelvis in a very traumatic motor vehicle accident, she would not be able to do weight shifting on her own for many months, if she ever would. I had recommended the Ease Seating System as her first cushion while she was in acute care as she developed red spots on her ischium just sitting up with Occupational Therapy Activities while in the Intensive Care Unit. She lost the flexibility of her lumbar spine, she had an uneven pelvis and was not able to move her head over her trunk due to the multiple levels of fusion needed to repair her neck. Her family looked at the wheelchair cushion information given with my recommendation, came together and obtained this specific wheelchair cushion before the patient was even up in a wheelchair before acute rehabilitation. This patient was able to participate fully in the acute rehabilitation process and did not suffer any trauma to her weight bearing skin, no pressure sites appeared with learning to sit again. The patient was able to return to being an involved mother to two young children as she returned home as she could stay up all day long in her electric wheelchair, to follow them around and engage in their activities, and to return to her work as a secretary at a major medical institution at 6 months with other modifications to allow her to work with little hand function.

The last and most recent patient is a young man, a teenager, who has been a C1/2 quadraplegic from a motor vehicle accident, since he was 2 years old. He has been an active healthy child, going to school, taking drum lessons, learning all the new video and computer games, talking on the phone and trying to get a girlfriend. 3 years ago, after a growth spurt, he developed almost during one day shift, two large decubitus, one on each ischium. These took almost 6 months to heal in spite of aggressive wound care, specialized mattress, complete bedrest with every two hour turning. I had recommended the Ease Cushion Seating System. But as his wound healed, his family worried about all of his expenses and his state funding agency decided on a high profile air cushion. The cushion vendor put the patient on the tension monitor to document the areas of greatest pressure - exactly over the areas of his decubitus, the right side was far larger than the left (which the decubitus copied). The patient then was put on 3 different high profile air filled cushions, he would start to break down each time he was up longer than 6 hours, even with attempts by his school aides to keep him on two hour repositioning and even periods of every 15 minute position change. The patient was in a tilt only wheelchair so had the additional problem of friction across the areas of scar from his first set of sores. The patient was in and out of school, spent days of bed rest, missing parties and outings with his family on occasion. This September he went to his first high school dance and stayed quite late. Within the next 24 hours, he had dark red area over the right ischium. This area went on to break down almost to the bone as the necrotic tissue was cleaned out. He had state of the art wound care, pressure relief in bed and started on tile table to work on straightening out his back and legs. He tolerated this well and slowly started to heal. Then he had an academic school event he needed to attend, he had two attendants who worked on releasing pressure every 15 minutes. He was only out of the facility about 4 hours but lost all of his healing after almost 4 months of bed rest. At this point, I again strongly recommended the East Comfort Cushion as I really wanted this patient to be back in school, his normal activities and with his peers. He missed them and was miserable in bed, I was afraid he would lose the ability to get up at 6 am and go to school, after school events, tutoring, drum lessons, video games, etc. until he was put to bed, 10 p.m. weeknights or 1:30 a.m. on the weekends with great enthusiasm and gusto. His family and involved staff came through for the patient. He was given his Ease Comfort Cushion and Mattress systems prior to Christmas. The patient was started back on out of bed program with increasing times each time up and increasing the number of times up per day. He was seated on the Ease Cushion with his Wound Vac easily until that was discontinued several weeks ago. In spite of being out of bed and continuing to increase his time in sitting, the patient closed his wounds and rapidly regained his endurance to be up for his school hours. The patient also had the first night of sleep since injury on his new mattress without waking up - he slept close to 14 hours. This continued through the first week of the new mattress, some staff were concerned that he was sleeping too much or was not longer with us as he had never been that quiet for that long. This too passed, he is now going to bed at 10 p.m. or later, and up and noisily announcing his presence by 6 to 7 a.m. His spasticity, which had gotten totally out of control with the onset of his wounds, seems to be back to baseline level - spasms with movement such as turning or transfers only. He is fitting extremely well in his same tilt chair with the Ease Cushion under him, and no longer is doing every 15 minute weight shifts or chair tilts. Although he is increasing his time up and out of bed, his skin remains closed and he does not have any localized redness when he is put back to bed. He is one very happy man, looking at full return to high school and other activities with the beginning of the New Year.

So thank you for providing excellent products, I feel strongly that funding agencies, particularly state and federal, should be using Ease cushions routinely. Alternating pressure relief would not only save our tax money, the Ease Cushion and Mattress Systems give patients life back that does not include bedsores, all the related medical care, no weight shifting or repositioning off the weight bearing areas every 15 to 120 minutes around the clock. I cannot imagine living with the every 15-minute movement requirement over my head. How would anyone have enough energy to do all the other things that make up a daily life? Same thing with the every two hours turning at night, this is torture for both the caregiver and the patient, no one ever has a good night's rest. If there is anything I can do to help you get your product out to the patients who would best benefit, please let me know. Your system has the best track record on the Internet and with my special patients. Thanks again.