43
NSM provides custom wheelchairs, independence for clients
By Kalea Hall
GIRARD
Terry Greenwood’s life changed 20 years ago when a house he was in on Pennsylvania Avenue was sprayed with bullets that left him relying on a wheelchair.
But he still is able to live with some sort of independence in his custom-built chair.
“I went bear hunting twice,” said Greenwood, 41. The deer he hunted hang in his home.
He made certain he didn’t forget about bringing his friends at National Seating and Mobility in Girard some deer meat. The staff there have helped him maintain independence through the custom chairs the company builds.
Before working with NSM, Greenwood got his chair from Boardman Medical Supply until the company closed its rehabilitation department where custom chairs were built.
Bob Garwood, manager of the local NSM branch, was the operator of the rehabilitation department at BMS. He worked for the company for 26 years. After BMS closed its rehabilitation department, Garwood decided to open a local NSM branch. NSM is a company whose core market is custom mobility.
Last October, the local NSM opened as the 115th branch at 115 W. Prospect St. Suite 200 in Girard with a staff that has 115 years of experience altogether.
Garwood, who started out building chairs on his own for BMS, has a staff of six, which includes technicians who build chairs.
The industry “has evolved in 25 years,” Garwood said.
NSM works with both children and adults who need custom wheelchairs. Some are born in need or some, like Greenwood, are in a wheelchair for other reasons.
“It provides them the independence that aids to daily living,” Garwood said.
Take Greenwood’s chair: a power tilt-in-space, and he drives it with “sip-n-puff. It has the power to tilt, recline and move Greenwood’s legs up and down. Sometimes it is difficult, and uncomfortable for him to get out of the chair, so he can just tilt back and relax.
It took Greenwood about two years to master the sip-n-puff on his chair. A puff goes forward, a sip goes backward, a soft puff goes to the right and a soft sip to the left.
Garwood has seen a chair help a teenage girl go to prom standing up in her standing chair and others were able to stand to receive their diplomas.
“It’s incredible,” Garwood said. “We have a young kid who does paintball and we bent some of the steel so he could go out in the fields and be able to do that.”
When a client reaches out to NSM, staff there go through an evaluation to get the positioning of the chair perfect for the client’s needs.
Once the chair is sent to the company the staff works together to make it what it needs to be.
“We all have experience,” Garwood said.
The Youngstown branch is leasing space from BMS and still works closely with the company to provide custom chairs in the Mahoning Valley and elsewhere.
“There’s a nice working relationship with National Seating and Mobility,” said Robin Ivany, owner of BMS.