Spinal cord injury transfers : general guide & importance

After spinal cord injury as you cannot stand on your feet, so you spend majority of your time sitting. To live an active life, spinal cord injury transfers between various surfaces is required, for example transfer between:

• wheelchair and bed
• wheelchair and commode chair
• wheel chair and car seat

Getting independence in spinal cord injury transfers is very important. For that, you need to work on your upper body and make yourself strong.

For paraplegic, transfer is an easy job. As their arms function well, so with little training and taking care of some basic rules, they can transfer between various surfaces safely and independently.

For quadriplegics, independent wheelchair transfer is still possible if the injury level is C5 and below, but for that, you need a lot of training and hard work.

I myself a c5 c6 quadriplegic for 15 years. Initially I required two individuals to transfer between wheelchair and bed. I would watch other quadriplegics transferring independently between wheelchair and bed on Internet . So I decided to make myself independent too. I did a lot of training and hard work and made myself independent in transfer. It gave me a lot of confidence and ease because now I don’t have to call others if I want to do quadriplegic transfer from wheelchair to bed and reverse.

Usually everybody adopts technique for transfer with which they feel easy. With time and practice, your body will become stronger and you will be able to transfer easily and in less time.

Read also : spinal injury un-intuitive body symptoms

Read also : Electric Wheelchair selection guidelines 

Following are few rules of spinal cord injury transfers, taking care of which will make your transfer safe and easier:

• First thing you need to take care of is level of the surfaces in between which you want to transfer. It’s always easier to transfer from higher surface to lower surface. So the surface where you want to transfer should be lower or at least level to your current surface.

•  While spinal cord injury transfers between bed and wheelchair, bring the wheelchair close to bed. There should be no gap and if there is any, cover it with cloth etc.

• Always apply breaks of your wheelchair while transferring, so that it doesn’t move and you remain safe.

• Keep your arms close to your body, it will put lesser stress on your shoulders.

• If your hands work fine then use grip also.

•  Use the head hip relationship. If you want to move your hip somewhere, move the head in opposite direction.

•  While spinal cord injury transfers to car, move car’s seat away from the staring and Tilt it back.

• If you are having pain in your shoulders, then take help of some one.

• The helper should bend knees and keep back straight to avoid stress to. back. You should use your force as much as you can.