I met Elaine Levin years ago at Medtrade. She was working on a
concept for a walker, she said, one that didn't look or act
anything like traditional walkers on the market.
Elaine has multiple sclerosis, and she was looking toward her
future, she said. She didn't want to be confined to the straight
and level paths of the world. She was searching for what she called
her “dream walker,” a “partner” that would
help her explore wherever she wanted and walk on whatever surface.
And she wanted it to have some style.
Since she couldn't find what she was envisioning, Elaine had
decided to create such a piece of equipment herself. She began with
the idea of adding suspension and moved on from there. She spent
months obtaining patents. She teamed up with IdeaMagik designer
Robert Porter, who is also a pilot, to get her ideas into
prototype.
The result of their efforts — what the duo calls an
“all-terrain walker” christened the Podna Rover —
performs just the way she had imagined, Elaine tells me. She can go
over uneven ground, travel off the path in the park and walk on
gravel. The prototype has shock-absorbing wheels and disc brakes,
and its nose wheel was designed with a trailing link suspension
that Porter took from the aviation industry “to smooth the
ride.”
A pivot feature in the center keeps the shoulders in a level
position, helping the user stay upright, while the device itself
conforms to the terrain. Hand protection avoids scraped knuckles.
There's a seat and a cargo net to carry goodies. “As you put
more weight in it, that helps lower the center of gravity and makes
the device even more stable,” Porter explains.
There's also the look, which is definitely different. When he
took the Podna for rehab patients to test at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, “it even turned the heads of the
people at the hospital,” Porter says. “The nurses and
therapists were all coming up asking what it was.”
Now that Elaine's dream walker has come to life, where does it
go from here? She and Porter have been approached by several
manufacturers, and they're considering the options.
What she does know, Elaine says: “I want anyone else who
won't take no for an answer to have the freedom to live a life to
the fullest. I decided long ago that a disability such as mine
wasn't enough to hold me back. The Podna Rover is an accessory, not
a hindrance.”
Who knows? Maybe at some point we'll see the Podna on display at
Medtrade.
