When Susan King’s disaster of a wheelchair hit the ice and got stuck, she knew she was in trouble.
The 66-year-old was rolling down a Harlem sidewalk when her electric chair ran into a mound of snow and slush piled outside an M&T Bank. She fought to keep her balance.
“The stupid thing wouldn’t budge,” King told The Post. “And then it tipped me right over.”
The mother of two slammed onto the frozen pavement, helpless.
Stranded in the cold, King waited as passersby called for help.
Soon, police officers and firefighters rushed to her aid — lifting her from the ground, wrapping her in a blanket, righting her wheelchair, and even waiting with her until an Uber arrived to take her home.
“They were really, really nice,” King said. “They were kind. They didn’t rush me. They stayed.”
King lives with lupus, severe knee problems, asthma, vein issues, and lingering pain from spinal surgery — but the most dangerous problem she’s got is her own wheelchair, she said.
“This chair risks my life every day,” she said.
She’s reported problem after problem, but Medicare and National Seating and Mobility, the company that supplied it, keep giving her the runaround, she claimed.
Repairs are promised, paperwork is shuffled, and nothing changes. Meanwhile, the chair has failed her repeatedly. She’s fallen several times before. In one of those accidents, she broke four toes.
So far, King said, the chair and long list of repairs have added up to a whopping $75,000. And although she isn’t obligated to pay out of pocket, King is concerned that “the chair may kill her.”
And she’s angry.
She’s made phone calls since she got the chair in June, but “every time, it’s the same thing. No answers. No fix,” she said.
She plans to call the bank, Medicare, and National Seating and Mobility and send them the photos of her latest disaster. She hasn’t ruled out a lawsuit.
“Maybe then they’ll listen,” King said.
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