Woman flung from wheelchair when wheel broke ‘needed floor to swallow her up’

A woman was thrown from her wheelchair when the wheel snapped off after getting stuck in a dropped kerb.

Abbie McMahon, 25, was having a day out in Cambridge when the incident occurred as she attempted to cross the road.

The front wheel of her wheelchair got stuck and broke off as she descended from a dropped kerb, causing her to experience pain along her spine and wrist from the fall. She had to wait by the roadside for 40 minutes until her mum and sister could come to pick her up.

Abbie, a wellbeing coordinator from Soham, Cambridgeshire, expressed: “In that moment, I just wanted the ground to swallow me up.”

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She added: “It was really embarrassing with everyone walking past.”

She immediately called her mum, but as she was at work, it took some time for her to reach Abbie.

Abbie has been using a wheelchair for a year after developing psoriatic arthritis, a chronic condition causing joint pain, swelling, and stiffness. She also suffers from hypermobility, a syndrome resulting in pain and stiffness due to highly flexible joints.

The wheelchair had given Abbie the freedom to socialise again after her health issues had made her feel restricted and isolated.

While the broken wheel was the most noticeable damage to the wheelchair, Abbie later discovered that the frame was also bent. She stated: “I was lucky enough to be able to buy some replacement parts for the front wheel, but even with that, you can see the metal frame is bent.”

“The wheels are wonky on the ground and it makes me too nervous to try it again.”

A replacement wheelchair, which it looks like Abbie is going to need, will cost about £850.

After the incident, she reached out to Cambridgeshire County Council for an insurance claim.

She said: “I put in a highways and an insurance claim into the local council. But I just heard back that they have found they’re not responsible so won’t be taking any action to help.”

The council said Mill Road, the street on which Abbie had her accident, is inspected on a monthly basis.

It added that the defect as per Abbie’s claim “was not identified as apparent or actionable at the time of the inspection,” which had taken place on August 6.

Abbie said: “I just find it difficult to understand how an able-bodied person’s inspection can come before my real experience just a couple days later.”

“It makes me feel like my needs as someone who uses a wheelchair just aren’t important.”

Abbie’s experience was made worse as only a handful of people offered to help her as she sat on the ground for 40 minutes.

She said: “The wheel breaking off was scary enough, especially because it meant I was thrown from my chair.”

“As it’s a motorised wheelchair, when the wheel got stuck I couldn’t lift the front of the chair to un-stick it, so the motor just kept going and the wheel snapped.”

“Then, when I was waiting for my mum, countless people passed me and only a few asked if I needed help.”

“It made me feel like no one actually cares.”

With the council’s response in hand, Abbie’s left scratching her head over the next steps.

Abbie commented: “I am definitely going to speak to citizens advice and appeal it, but I’m not sure what that process will be.”

The strain is evident as Abbie confesses: “When I think about it all I just feel so stressed.”

On getting a new wheelchair, she reckons: “In terms of replacing my wheelchair, I think it will just have to be a case of having to save up alongside the GoFundMe money that people have kindly donated.”

Speaking of life before her chair, she reflects: “I was really quite low before I got my wheelchair.”

Facing life without the chair has her saying: “Now I’m living without it again. I don’t know how I did it before.”

Around the house, she manages: “I can get around my house on my crutches but anything further afield becomes really tricky.”

The wheelchair, she notes, “The wheelchair gives me freedom to live life as a 25-year-old and not worry about the basics.”

Sounding defeated, she laments: “Now it’s like I’m back to square one.”

To pitch in for Abbie’s cause, you can donate to her GoFundMe page right here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/6rf5zu-help-me-get-a-new-electric-wheelchair.