Ease Cushion

Ron was a competitive rower in college at MIT and continued to compete after college until he had a bicycle accident in 2001. He sustained a complete spinal cord injury at location T 10, resulting in complete enervation from the belly button on down. Obviously traumatic injury causes major lifestyle changes, but he was anxious to get back to as normal of a life as he could.

While in rehab, despite doing frequent pressure lifts, he developed three pressure sores from sitting on a gel cushion. He then switched to an air cushion and got treatment from home care nurses and several wound care specialists. Two of the wounds healed, but one of them remained stubbornly open.

He had returned to work a few months after the accident but other than work, he spent most of his time lying down to keep pressure off of the wound. Not too exciting for a guy like Ron. He wanted to row again, to hand-cycle and to work on an MBA degree. He could do all these things from a seated position but not lying in a bed!

Eventually, his doctor told him to stay in bed all of the time. To get the wound to heal, he had to take medical leave from his job. The wound was so deep and no treatment was working, so he finally had no choice. Flap surgery is almost worse than the disease. Recovery from that was 10 weeks lying facedown in bed.

Nevertheless, he used his recovery time to research cushions and ultimately decided to get an Alternating Pressure cushion from EASE Seating Systems. Ron was always very diligent about pressure lifts, but that wasn’t doing enough for him to prevent sores. He figured that the additional motion of the cushion couldn’t hurt and might help. He got his cushion and started to increase his time of sitting up, carefully checking every day for signs of pressure problems.

To his delight no redness appeared. He returned to work, slowly built back up to full days, and even went back to school. Sometimes with the combination of work and school, he was his wheel chair for 15+ hours straight. His commute was long, so he used an EASE Overlay Cushion while driving. That cushion has also proved useful in airliners because his wheelchair cushion is too big for an airline seat

"The EASE Cushion allowed me to get my life back."

Ron went on to become a five-time U.S. National Team member and three-time medalist at the FISA World Championships.

Harvey began rowing with MIT at the age of 18, and now works out with the California Adaptive Rowing Program at the Long Beach Rowing Association.

Harvey works as an engineer at Parker-Hannifin, a company specializing in motion and control technology. When he isn't working or on the water, Harvey also enjoys handcycling.