Rehabilitation: Self-Sufficiency Surfboard

Benny Boudreaux, 40, from the bayou country of Louisiana, lost the use of his legs from an injury to his spinal cord in an auto crash while he was in the Air Force. Like most of the 1 00,000 U.S. paraplegics (both legs disabled) and quadriplegics (both arms and legs disabled), Boudreaux was constantly prey to excruciating decubitus ulcers, better known as bedsores. In the Veterans Administration Hospital in Memphis, he was condemned to lie in bed, face down, so no bony prominences could cause pressure and ulcers.

Boudreaux wanted to do metal work, but he could not reach a workbench from a wheelchair, and anyhow, he could not sit on the ulcer at the base of his spine. He had heard about stand-up beds and tilt-tables—so why not convert a wheelchair into something similar? Therapist Robert E. Craig and Dr. Hodge M. Eagleson Jr. worked with Boudreaux in perfecting a sort of surfboard-wheelchair combination.

Last week Dr. Eagleson told the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine about the improvisation and later improvements. The surfboard is made from two pieces of plywood hinged together and covered with foam rubber. The bedsore patient lies on it face down, with his legs at an angle of about 20° from the vertical, and the upper part of his body only 25° to 35° from the horizontal. In this position, patients on surfboards can read and eat more comfortably. Their old bedsores heal without surgery, and new sores do not develop. Boudreaux has perfected his board to the point where he can work as a TV repairman and even winch himself into a pirogue to go duck hunting.