On 26-may-2022, motion concepts lp was notified by (b)(4), that one of the dealers in usa ((b)(4)) informed them of an incident that was related to a motion concepts wheelchair.The wheelchair was sold to (b)(4) but, (b)(4) was maintaining it.They notified that the end-user was driving his wheelchair when he suddenly fell forward and wheelchair fell on top of the end-user.The end-user fractured both his ankles and had to wear cast from knee down.The dealer confirmed that they had adjusted the seat depth forward by 2" on 13-may-2022 and the end-user was not wearing seat belt or chest strap as the buckle on the seat belt was damaged before the incident.
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The mentioned system was shipped from motion concepts to (b)(4) (motion concepts usa importer/distributor), as per dealer requirements, on 05-sep-2019 and then was sold to (b)(4) on 09-sep-2019.But the wheelchair was maintained by (b)(4).The dealer reported that both the ankles of the end-user were fractured when the wheelchair fell on top of the end-user after he fell forward from the wheelchair.During the evaluation, it was determined that on 13-may-2022, the dealer who were maintaining the wheelchair adjusted the seat depth by 2 inches to make it 20" deep.They did not contact motion concepts to consult about this change which they are making to the wheelchair.While re-evaluating the wheelchair by the dealer, they noticed the following: washers were missing from underneath the front seat pan which would produce a slight decline.Bolts for adjusting seat depth were slightly loose, but the seat pan was in place.Tilt/elevate switch was hanging and not mounted in place.Observed extreme tipsiness forward when leaning or putting weight on front-end of wheelchair.It was also noted that the end-user was not using the seat belt during the incident as the left side (male end) of seat belt was missing its buckle.This should have been replaced during the bi-annual maintenance.For addressing the issue, the dealer moved the seat depth 2" back to its original position, added missing washers and mounted the tilt/elevate switch to ensure it would not hang down.The seat belt was also replaced to a functioning one.So, we conclude that the unfortunate incident happened because of the changes that was made on the seat depth of the wheelchair and also because the end-user was not following the recommended safety measures.The incident occurred not due to motion concepts system malfunction but, as a personal injury was involved, motion concepts consider this incident to be reportable.
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