Case Study: Living With MS Made Easier With A Mangar Leglifter

Jennifer Humprey is 73 and lives in an assisted living apartment on the outskirts of Plymouth. A retired accounts administrator, she is treasurer of the residents’ social club and enjoys spending time with her 8 year old granddaughter Daisy. Jennifer was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in her early 50s after experiencing bowel and bladder symptoms often associated with the disease. She had also begun to notice reduced function in one of her legs. After a series of relapses doctors confirmed her condition to be secondary progressive MS. Jennifer had been using a Mangar Elk to assist her off the floor, which had allowed her to live life to the full.

As her condition deteriorated, she was finding increasing problems with strength and mobility in her legs, Jennifer remained keen to continue living as independently as possible, using equipment that enables her to live a fulfilled life, whilst maintaining her dignity. Although now dependent on the use of an electric wheelchair she is still able to transfer from her wheelchair to a comfortable chair. Carers are visiting twice a day and they help her to get up in the morning and to go to bed in the evening. Jennifer was finding it increasingly difficult to help her carers to move her legs onto the bed, her carers needed to help lift her legs onto the bed which was putting them at risk of a back injury. Jennifer found this frustrating and regularly voiced her wish to be able to lift her legs into bed independently.

After a referral to the occupational therapist, a joint visit with the Mangar representative was arranged to demonstrate their Leglifter, this piece of equipment is designed to provide assistance to raise, lift and transfer legs into bed. The Leglifter enable Jennifer to get her legs up and into bed independently and on days where some assistance was needed by her care team, the equipment protected carers from musculoskeletal injury. The Leglifter had a big impact on Jennifer, enabling her to continue completing bed transfers independently and in turn have energy to engage in other meaningful tasks she wanted to do throughout the day. Jennifer says, “As I lost the ability to move my legs myself, getting into bed became a task we struggled with each evening. The Leglifter not only does the job but also means I am happy in the knowledge that my carers are not going to be injured while helping me”.