Personal Experience with Pressure Sores

My name is Rex Taylor and I am the inventor of the patented EASE Seating System. When I was 12, I suffered 2 nd and 3 rd degree burns over 85% of my body. I had burned my entire right side and leg from the shoulders down, and had less severe burns on the left side. In 1944, burns to such a degree as mine were considered fatal, and the doctors told my parents that I would probably die. 

About three months later, the doctors realized that the kid might live after all. Expecting me to die, no one thought to move me. I had been lying on my back for three months and had a huge Stage 4 pressure sore in my coccyx area. To deal with the pressure sore, they placed me on my left side, and soon I had another Stage 4 sore on my left hip! I have included some not very pretty pictures of my left hip and coccyx area. Graphic evidence of what LACK of MOVEMENT CAN DO to SOFT TISSUE! My coccyx area was grafted over and the hip sore healed normally, but I still have the crater in my hip that has not filled in after 63 years. Though I spent 4 years in a wheelchair, I did recover a productive life, working primarily in the aviation industry.

Rex Taylor

Rex's Butt

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Why the EASE Cushion Was Developed

In 1989 I had a young "para" working for me on my carburetor bench. Arthur was quite capable of doing his required "lifts and shifts", but would forget to do them. And he would suffer soft tissue breakdown, commonly called "Pressure Sores". "Pressure Sores" is a misleading term however, because while pressure is surely a factor, the real cause is lack of movement! That's why I got my sores as a kid. I was heavily sedated and staying in one position for hours at a time

That combination is what produces pressure sores!

As an engineer, used to solving problems by analyzing them, then finding a solution, I saw that Arthur's sores were caused by his lack of movement to relieve pressure and allow fresh blood to flow. Why not design a cushion for Arthur to sit on that moved , so that Arthur didn't have to remember to lift and shift" . Three years later, after many months of building and testing ideas, then discarding most of them, we had a good working model and were ready for real world trial.

An old friend from the aviation world had recently been injured in a motorcycle accident that left him a T9-T10 paraplegic. Don had been in a wheelchair for about a year and already had some probably Stage 2 sores on his butt. I asked him to try the first EASE Seating System Don's sores healed quickly and today almost 7 years later , Don is still sitting on our products, a G 100+ System, and has not had any more pressure sores !

If you never had sores, you want to protect yourself from them. On this web site you will meet dozens of customers that came after Don. They have found that our products work ! We suggest that you read the testimonials of our customers, pick two or three whose disability is similar to yours and contact them if you like. Most have included e-mail addresses and some even phone numbers.

These people are only a fraction of the many people enjoying freedom from pressure sores by using our products. But don't take our word for it; ask the person who uses our EASE Seating System every day . If you have a sore you will find out on this web site that it is possible for people at high risk for pressure sores to live completely pressure sore free using our seating and mattress products with space age ccpm technology.

Engineering Versus Medicine

Pressure sores and seating pain are widely considered medical problems, and hence are treated with drugs, surgery, wound care protocols, dressings, and skilled nursing care. EASE has looked at this problem with new eyes. We have taken an Engineering approach to the problem rather than the conventional medical view and believe we have made the biggest BREAKTHROUGH in wheel chair seating in many years.

As an engineer who has endured pressure sores in my own life, I am constantly amazed at the medical communities. Time after time I have seen people have pressure sore after sore, have it repaired by surgeons, and then the now newly healed person's butt is placed back in the chair on the very same inadequate cushion that gave him the previous pressure sores. Don't they ever learn?

Albert Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing in the same way time after time and expecting a different result! The difference in the engineering approach is if you do something two times in a row and get the same negative result , that is proof positive the method doesn't work!

SO, YOU CHANGE THE METHOD TO CHANGE THE RESULT!

In a sense that is exactly what the EASE Seating System does.

Read recent letters from Medical Proffessionals, some are Ease System users!

ACTIVE ALTERNATING PRESSURE

The EASE cushion prevents pain and sores by supplying the movement to soft tissues that replaces the natural movement that has been lost. To do this, it uses Active Alternating Pressure, a technique that's been proven effective in hospitals to treat persistent bedsores.

An alternating pressure mattress contains many air cells that run under the user at a right angle to the body. An air pump that plugs into the wall moves air in and out of the cells so that the support points under the user at high pressure constantly move. This allows blood to flow into all tissues and thus relieve pain and allow sores to heal. Constant movement makes any pressure points of no consequence.

A cushion is more difficult to make than a mattress because the pressures on soft tissue are much higher. Just the buttocks alone must support the whole body without help from the back and legs.

Computer Controlled Pressure Management

The new and unique feature that EASE adds is to make the cushion fully portable, not plugged into the wall like a mattress. To do this a microprocessor controls a small pump that moves the air and both run on a small battery pack. The batteries are rechargeable and the pump runs over 100 hours on one charge. This combination of air management by programmed control is patented and proprietary to EASE. We call it Computer Controlled Pressure Management, or CCPM Technology.

How Pressure Sores Form

Lack of movement = Pressure Sores

When an area of soft tissue is under pressure for more than twenty minutes, some cells start to die for lack of the nourishment the blood supplies to this soft tissue. As a person sits, the soft tissue is compressed between the bone structure of the body and the supporting surface. When that compressive force is enough to squeeze the blood out of the soft tissue, and the person stays in that position for more than twenty minutes, some of the cells start to die! The longer the person sits without moving the greater the percentage of cells that die, to the point that the destruction is so great that all the tissue area deprived of fresh blood becomes necrotic and a pressure sore forms.

Uninjured people never sit totally still for any extended length of time. They move and shift in response to subconscious inputs and avoid the pressure sore problems. We even move in our sleep in response to these subconscious inputs. A healthy unimpaired person moves and shifts subconsciously without even realizing it.

People with spinal cord injuries or mobility impairing diseases, such as M/S, ALS and M/D, can't move in response to these inputs or perhaps no longer have the active inputs. They don't move sufficiently to keep the soft tissue nourished with fresh blood. From an engineering standpoint, the problem is how to restore movement and change the pressure patterns to insure an adequate supply of fresh blood to soft tissue under compression.

EASE Can Prevent Pressure Sores!

How CCPM Prevents Pain and Sores

The cushion contains about a dozen air tubes that run from side to side under the seated user. The microprocessor controls the flow of air to move the points of support, (or pressure), every few minutes. Imagine the air tubes numbered from 1 to 12 starting at the front under the knees. The tubes change shape in a four-step cycle

Each square millimeter of soft tissue experiences high pressure, low pressure, no pressure, and finally low pressure. There are four changes of pressure or movements every few minutes. Experience has shown that this cycle is sufficiently frequent to prevent sores and pain.

We have had excellent results with the people we have put on our seating systems soon after they are confined to the wheelchair or at the first sign of skin breakdown. Waiting for skin breakdown is risky though, since for many people, the first sore is a Stage 3 or 4 sore and very serious. Pressure sores are caused by lack of motion more than pressure.

The best way to deal with pressure sores is to prevent them. EASE prevents sores and helps heal sores by applying an Engineering Solution to what was long considered a strictly Medical Problem.

Some medical people believe that pressure sores are an almost inevitable part of life for wheelchair users. That is simply not true. Many doctors and writers in mobility related magazines, tend to believe that suffering pressure sores is almost, 'par for the course' for the chair bound person and little can be done to change that.

We Disagree - PRESSURE SORES ARE NOT INEVITABLE!

PRESSURE SORES CAN BE PREVENTED!

A healthy unimpaired person moves and shifts subconsciously without even realizing it. We even move in our sleep in response to these subconscious inputs telling our brain that an area of soft tissue is deprived of blood and nourishment. When an area of soft tissue is under pressure for more that twenty minutes, some cells start to die for the lack of nourishment the blood supplies to this soft tissue. The longer a person sits or lies without the necessary movement to relieve the pressure, the greater the number of dead cells. If an area of soft tissue is under constant pressure for an hour or more, the result of the pressure induced blood deprivation to the cells is a pressure sore. By far the best way to deal with pressure sores is to prevent the sore in the first place.

MOVEMENT IS CRITICAL!

Our seating systems change the pressure point under the seated user every four minutes. Our computer driven system provides the movement that alternately applies pressure and then takes it away. When the pressure is relieved, a fresh supply of nourishing blood floods into the tissue. This continuous cycle of alternating pressure insures that the soft tissue gets the adequate supply of blood necessary for good health. We have had excellent results with the people we have put on our seating systems soon after they are confined to the wheelchair or at the first sign of skin breakdown. Waiting for skin breakdown is risky though, since for many people, the first sore is a Stage 3 or 4 sore and very serious. Many doctors and writers, in mobility rated magazines, tend to believe that suffering pressure sores is almost 'par for the course' for the chair bound person and little can be done to change that.

WHAT CAUSES PRESSURE SORES?

Answer: Pressure does not caused pressure sores! Lack of movement causes pressure sores!

When people lose a mobility from a spinal cord injury, or a neuromuscular disease such as MS, ALS or other causes, they lose the ability to move their own body and weight while seated or in bed. Pressure generated between the person's own skeletal frame and seat or bed squeezes the blood out from the soft tissue between the bone and support surface. As long as we have gravity, we will have the weight that causes the pressure and we cannot change that but we can control amount of time the tissue is under pressure. When we move the pressure away, the bodies own circulatory system floods the pressure drained tissue with fresh blood. Our "EASE ACTIVE MASSAGE SEATING SYSTEM" alternately applies pressure for 4 minutes then reduces the pressure to half for 4 minutes then reduces the pressure to almost nothing for 4 minutes. Then pressure increased by half for 4 minutes, and then increased to full for 4 minutes to be back at the starting point and starting another cycle. The alternating pressure greatly increases the blood flow to the soft tissue promoting healing to existing sores and significantly reducing the risk for pressure sores in the future.

THE EASE "ACTIVE MASSAGE" SEATING SYSTEM WILL REPLACE THE LOST MOVEMENT!

Pressure sores are caused by lack of motion more than pressure. As a person sits, the soft tissue is compressed between the bone structure of the body and the supporting surface. When that compressive force is enough to squeeze the blood out of the soft tissue, and the person stays in that position for more than twenty minutes, some of the cells start to die. The longer the person sits without moving the greater the percentage of cells to the point that cellular destruction is so great that all the tissue area deprived of fresh blood becomes necrotic and pressure sore is formed. The problem is far more lack of movement that pressure. Uninjured people never sit totally still for any extended length of time. They move and shift in response to subconscious imputes and avoid the pressure sore problem.

People with spinal cord injuries or mobility impairing diseases, such as MS, Al's and MD, can't move in response to these imputes or perhaps no longer have the active imputes, so they don't move sufficiently to keep the soft tissue nourished with fresh blood. From an engineering standpoint, the problem was how to restore movement and change the pressure patterns to insure an adequate supply of fresh blood to the soft tissue areas under compression.

Despite spinal cord injury or mobility impairing disease, when supplemented by the artificial movement our EASE Seating System provides, the cushion user's circulatory system and Mother Nature takes over and maintains good soft tissue health!

Most people never worry too much about getting pressure sore until they have one. Some medical people believe that pressure sores are an almost inevitable part of life for wheelchair users. That is simply not true. Many doctors and writers, in mobility related magazines, tend to believe that suffering pressure sores is almost 'par for the course' for the chair bound person and little can be done to change that.

We respectfully disagree and offer the experiences of our many customers as proof that the EASE Seating Systems can keep even the highest risk people pressure sore free for years. These customers "life trials' have demonstrated the proof positive that movement is the difference between good soft tissue health and the misery of pressure sores.