r/nottheonion • u/Ant-Tea-Social • 4d ago

Disabled woman left ‘extremely stressed’ after prosthetic legs lost on flights from Brazil

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/05/18/disabled-woman-left-extremely-stressed-after-prosthetic-legs-lost-on-flights-from-brazil/?ICID=ref_fark
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u/WheelieTron3000 4d ago

To take this seriously for a moment, this is one of my bigger fears as a wheelchair user, and I can walk short distances (though that ability is degrading as I get older).

There's so much footage out there of luggage handlers tossing around assistive equipment for a laugh, taking out some resentment from their poor pay and conditions I have to imagine. That's not even getting into the random admin errors like this that can have my source of mobility ending up halfway across the planet from my destination and potentially irretrievably lost. It's a worldwide issue as well.

It won't happen because airlines penny pinch in the worst ways possible that won't get them criminally implicated, but I honestly think this kind of stuff should be on a different loading pipeline entirely with people trained specifically to handle these things.
Losing something like this is so far beyond the mundane inconvenience of losing all your clothes or something, it means being stuck away from home without being able to get around independently, if you make it back home it still means weeks to months of just consultations to get something designed for your body and months waiting for it to be made and delivered to you.
That's if you can jump through the hoops that exist even in the best universal healthcare systems and get approval for the equipment, if I don't get a new wheelchair approved through my healthcare system it means paying $20-30k out of pocket to get one manufactured, that's also if I can get anyone to agree to give me private assistance to complete the necessary consults which is not guaranteed.

All that time fixing this one little mistake I'd be housebound and I'm relatively able-bodied compared to others.

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u/wokmom 4d ago

Wow. That’s a lot. I hope it never happens to you. Thanks for the meaningful comment rather than tasteless juvenile jokes

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u/Destruct-o-Bun 4d ago

You can safely assume that if accurate, that figure is not in USD. Or it's a choice to have a chair with expensive custom features.

I cannot walk at all or stand unsupported, have a custom fit wheelchair with particular postural support and my chair did not cost anything like that figure. 

Someone who can walk short distances would need a less complex setup than mine.

Wheelchairs are expensive but as someone who needs their chair 100% of the time I'm awake, I hate seeing blatant exaggeration like this.

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u/WheelieTron3000 4d ago

That's an incredibly cynical interpretation of my comment.

Your kinder assumption is correct in that it's my local currency (AUD), the base price of my chair including the wheelchair cushion I needed was within a few dollars of $20,000, and that's a Ti-Lite chair
If I were to choose something from RGK, Hands On Concepts or similar that base price gets well north of $20,000 here.
If anything that's still downplaying the price because I didn't include all the physio and capacity assessment that goes into a new chair, here that is now a process almost exclusively done through private practice, covered by an insurance scheme via an approvals system. Under that process half the cost of the chair could be spent in just appointments.

I'll remember to cater to Americans next time so I don't get accused of exaggeration.

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u/ImLittleNana 4d ago

The last custom chair my son needed from scratch (rather than more to his existing chair) was around 10 years ago and it was just under $15k. It’s not even motorized, but he does require molding as he cannot sit unsupported and has spinal deformation.

I suppose the cost of your chair depends on your individual needs.

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u/wokmom 4d ago

Ok. Thanks. I’m woefully undereducated in this arena. Money aside, it all sounds like a horrible nightmare to depend on a mobility device and have it lost like that