When a New Wheelchair Breaks in Harrisburg: A Disabled Nurse’s Fight for Reliable Mobility
In a first-person essay published by Pittsburgh’s Public Source on November 6, 2026, disabled registered nurse Monica Albert Still argued that the current systems governing durable medical equipment leave users stranded when essential devices fail. Traveling to Harrisburg to advocate for healthcare access for disabled Pennsylvanians, Albert Still experienced a sudden malfunction when the rubber separated from a front caster wheel on her wheelchair, which was less than six months old.
For Albert Still, who was born with spina bifida and has lived with a disability for 61 years, the breakdown meant an immediate loss of mobility in an unfamiliar city.
The Hidden Costs of Waiting for Overseas Repairs
The initial caster failure was only the beginning of a two-month ordeal. After contacting the durable medical equipment company that sold her the chair, Albert Still learned that being stranded in the state capital did not qualify as an urgent repair. Weeks later, the drive-assist system malfunctioned in a way that she was told the repair people had never seen before, and replacement front casters had to be shipped from overseas because they were not kept in stock.
While waiting approximately two months for the parts to arrive, Albert Still had to rely on a backup wheelchair that was over five years old, bulkier, harder to transport, and lacked a functioning drive assist. Once the new parts finally arrived and were installed, the fabric seat panel ripped at the seams. Fixing the defect on a device less than a year old required paying a $130 copay for a solid replacement panel to ensure she could safely commute to work.
Under Medicare rules, durable medical equipment is generally assumed to have a useful lifetime of five years, leaving limited pathways for expedited replacements when equipment breaks down prematurely.
Pushing for Right-to-Repair Protections in Pennsylvania
Highlighting disparities in consumer protections, Albert Still pointed to legislative models in other states that address recurring equipment failures. Colorado’s wheelchair right-to-repair law, which took effect in 2023, requires manufacturers of powered wheelchairs to make parts, tools, software, and repair information available to owners and independent repair providers. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s assistive-device warranty law mandates temporary replacements or rental reimbursements when qualifying repairs exceed 10 working days, and Oregon maintains warranty protections for defective assistive devices.
Albert Still emphasized that unlike automobiles covered by traditional lemon laws, a broken wheelchair cannot simply be parked in the driveway while waiting indefinitely for parts. For fixed-income individuals lacking financial resources or transit experience, equipment delays translate directly into missed work, canceled medical appointments, and forced isolation.
