She’s leaning on her faith and her neighbors to get through each day. But what she really wants is simple: her freedom back.
EAGLE LAKE, Texas — A paraplegic woman in Eagle Lake says the company responsible for maintaining her electric wheelchair has left her unable to move freely for about a month after a repair visit she says made things worse.
Jacqueline Christal says National Seating and Mobility came out to service her electric wheelchair roughly a month ago, and the chair has not worked properly since. It now struggles to move and turn, forcing her to rock back and forth just to get around.
Christal said before the trouble started, her wheelchair gave her real freedom in her community.
“Ran around here, talked to all my neighbors. I was going across the street to the nursing home.”
Now, she says, that independence is gone.
“Like 90% of my life has been taken away from me.”
She says she has reached out to National Seating and Mobility multiple times over the past month trying to get the chair fixed. The company eventually provided a loaner, but she says it does not meet her medical needs. Her chair has a tilt function that allows her to shift her weight and relieve pressure, which is critical for preventing painful pressure sores. The loaner, she says, does not have it.
“It will rise up and down, but tilt and forward and tilt and back to get off my bottom to relieve some pressure. It doesn’t do any of that.”
The emotional toll has been just as heavy as the physical one.
“Just like being in here. It just, like, was suffocating me. It was getting me so depressed.”
Her wheelchair is not her only challenge. The accessibility ramp on her vehicle is also not working properly, leaving her with limited options for getting around. She says her faith and the support of her neighbors have been what carries her through each day.
“If it wasn’t for God, I just don’t know what would have happened to me.”
With no fix and no timeline from the company, Christal turned to KHOU 11 for help.
“I didn’t know what else to do but to reach out to y’all.”
At the end of the day, her ask is a simple one.
“Only thing I want is to be able to move around, to get my freedom, to get my independence back.”
KHOU 11 reached out to National Seating and Mobility for comment but had not received a response as of the time of this report. The station says it will continue pursuing a resolution for Christal.
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