Archive for June, 2011

Where are the 70.000 workers at Frankfurt Airport???

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

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Long “fairytale”, but worth reading!!!

On Saturday I landed exceedingly on time on 22:30 from Chania (Crete) in Frankfurt.

I will never understand why some people are applauding after the landing. Nobody was ever applauding for me when I did my job well. Anyway…

The aircraft was parking on a remote stand, I had as usual a nice window seat and watched very relaxed the totally stressed pedestrians leaving the plane.

As wheelchair user you have the privilege of the last passenger after the landing.

The flight captain stated that he had requested the special lifting bus and adequate members of the ground staff already several times, so that I could leave the plane as well.

But nobody came!!!

Parts of the crew and the pilot provided some company to me with which they apparently had some fun. The unwritten law that the captain is the last to leave the ship is still of great importance at Condor.

Eventually someone from ground staff came and seriously asked me if I could walk. He accurately observed that he could not help me on his own. Insight of the day…

While waiting for the lifting bus the luggage was unloaded, so I asked a crew member to check if my wheelchair and wheelchair tractive Minitrac are waiting on the airfield and hopefully are not loaded on the luggage carts.

He said that this would be the case, the things would be standing there. Uff…

The lifting bus finally arrived around 23:10, I left the aircraft with the help of two strong guys and my beloved plane transit wheelchair.

Afterwards they helped me into my own wheelchair which unlike my Minitrac was fortunately still there.
Anyway, so we had to get my Minitrac at the bulky luggage claim.

With the bus we were not brought as usual to the FraCare Service (Service for handicapped at Frankfurt airport), because this area was already closed at this time, but to a different entrance.

There a friendly employee from FraCare was waiting for me.

She said that our luggage would be in the reconstructed building C, and we would have to see how we get there at this time because some of the elevators were switched off.

She used her phone virtually as GPS and lead us confidently like a bushman in the desert through the corridors of the building.

When we finally arrived at the luggage belt we didn’t have to search our luggage for a long time, our 3 bags were rotating around and around.

The whole baggage claim area was almost deserted, there was not even a luggage thief.

My Minitrac

stood with its 65 kg a little disjointed in a plastic box on the bulky luggage belt!

My wife reassembled the Minitrac to begin with.

It is unbelievable, but at 23:44 nobody responsible was there nor could be reached by telephone, who could lift my little box from the luggage belt.

In the meantime even the last passengers were gone who we could have asked for help.

At last my wife has magically lifted my Minitrac from the luggage belt together with two men whom I just call Mister X and Y here. At this point I would like to thank them and the employee of FraCare again!

I left the terminal at 23:55!!!

My pre-ordered wheelchair taxi was kindly waiting in front of the terminal.

I have sent this “fairy tale” in a slightly modified version to Fraport (operating company of Frankfurt Airport) requesting their comments. I will keep you informed.

To my shame I have to admit that I used to work 9 years at the Frankfurt airport before my accident.

Translator BL

 

Technical Aids Testing Crete Part I

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

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Ingenious: A cooling vest which only needs water!

My spinal cord has decided in 2007 that sweating is stupid.
Since then my skin is quite dry :-(

This phenomenon is nothing unusual with para- or quadriplegia.

As a consequence my body temperature rises and rises when it is above 25° C and sun.

This can lead until fainting at approximately 40° C.

A water sprayer for flowers can work miracles (see older blog post), but is not the best solution either.

There are special cooling vests, with thermal packs or fans, well… I think it is too complicated, and you are depending on thermal packs and refrigerators. So I prefer hiding at home and waiting for the winter.

In May I met Sepp Jakober on a technical aids trade fair, the chief engineer of the wheelchair tractive Swisstrac who gave me tuning tips for my Minitrac.

He gave me a vest from the company E-Cooline and said that I would absolutely have to try it. He borrowed it from another booth.

The vest would cool you, you just have to put water on it, the water would not flow out, hard to believe!!!
The vest would absorb the water, virtually sweat and thus cool you.
It was invented for fire fighters.

The cooling vest was working!!!

A quantum leap for quality of live.

I underwent a two-week stress test with the cooling vest in Crete.

The E-Cooline vest is really cooling, ingenious!!!

It doesn’t get wet, the body feeling can be described as cooling-clammy, but it is not unpleasant.

Be careful with filling water in it as 4 liters fit inside, and then you would have to wait approximately 3 days until you are able to wear this “lead vest” again. There is no water dripping off. 0,5 liters are more than enough for approximately 4 hours at 30°C in the shade.

The Cooline vests are available in a simple design with velcro tape, see picture above, or two rows of snap fasteners and additional removable lower part.

From the same material there are scarfs and caps available which I would like to test as well.

I was able to stroll around at the beach promenade with my wife in the afternoons at 30° C in the shade without water sprayer or wet towel.
The cooling vest made a great holiday possible, and I have just ordered a black vest and cap.

The price of approximately 300 € is not low, but if you bear in mind what you have to pay for good winter clothing or trivial cotton jeans I consider the price justifiable for a vest out of such a high tech material.

This vest opens so many possibilities for me, I don’t have to hide any more in summer!!!

The only disadvantage is that the vest weighs around 4 kg after washing and you have to wait 3-4 days until it has dried again.

You can purchase these vests from E-Cooline
Unfortunately these vests don’t have a medical device number. With an adequate prescription and statement from the doctor some health insurances would bear the expenses.

For question as usual: rollinator@eigude.de

With all this verbiage Karl Lagerfeld would probably be proud of me!
PG-13 prohibits to show my “six-pack” stomach!

Translator BL

Back from Technical Aids Testing!

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Test reports will follow shortly.

Wheelchair Tuning Part XXV (Competitor)

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

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I don’t want to keep the beach wheelchairs back from you 8-)

I think the Sopur wheelchair for children is awesome. A good pusher is a must.

(Deutsch) Rollifahrer-Seepferdchen

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011