Successfully overcome obstacles in everyday life

Successfully overcome obstacles in everyday life

The Manfred Sauer Foundation donates the training course "Nix wie raus" for over 60,000 euros to the SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach.

15 centimetres - a curb is not a big challenge for healthy pedestrians. A wheelchair user has to train a lot until he can manage this height on his own in everyday life. There are also cobblestones, gravel paths, ramps, stairs and last but not least tram tracks. The latter presented the greatest challenge in the planning and implementation of the “Nix wie raus” training course for wheelchair users at the SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach, which cost over 60,000 euros. The course was officially opened last week.

The new training course on the roof garden of the Langensteinbach Clinic was financed by the non-profit Manfred Sauer Foundation. It wants to contribute to a barrier-free coexistence of people with spinal paralysis and pedestrians.

Around 2,000 people suffer from spinal paralysis every year in Germany. This life-changing event severely limits the everyday life of those affected. To deal with this new situation physically and mentally, not only competent medical and psychological support, but also sufficient training and exercise options are required.

Training for everyday life

In order to promote individual mobility and to master everyday requirements outside the home, learning the basic techniques of wheelchair driving and safe handling of the wheelchair are essential requirements. On the compressed space of the new training course at the Langensteinbacher Klinikum, wheelchair users can independently train driving on various floor profiles, coping with inclines, slopes, steps and tram tracks, as well as driving on public roads. With its many different training segments, the new training course in Karlsbad-Langensteinbach also offers the option of rollator and gait training for patients with restricted mobility.

At the official opening event this week Jörg Schwarzer, Managing Director of the Karlsbad Clinic, personally thanked Manfred Sauer: “Manfred Sauer's life's work is unique and impressive. We are very grateful that the Manfred Sauer Foundation's training course has become part of our clinic.”

Thanks to Schwarzer, Dr. Carl Hans Fürstenberg, chief physician of the Paraplegiology department at the SRH Clinic Karlsbad-Langensteinbach. “There are 27 paraplegia centres in Germany, but only one with this training program for paraplegics. The course ideally completes our therapy options and once again underlines the nationwide importance of the Langensteinbach Clinic in the field of spinal disorders. "

The SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach was supported by the Karlsruhe Transport Association (KVV) in the search for suitable rail sections for the course. At the opening, Sebastian Spitzer, representative for accessibility and mobility at the KVV, emphasised that rails are a challenge for wheelchair users, but would also ensure and expand individual mobility. One would also want to pursue this goal in the future, said Spitzer.

SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach

The acute hospital specialises in spinal surgery, orthopaedics, endoprosthetics and traumatology, paraplegia, internal medicine, neurology, vascular surgery, pain therapy and psychiatry and offers treatment at the highest level. The clinic is an academic teaching hospital of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg and a member of the Initiative Quality Medicine (IQM). With over 1,000 employees, the SRH Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach is one of the most important employers in the district. More than 30,000 patients are treated here every year, of which around 21,000 on an outpatient basis. The managing director is Jörg Schwarzer. The clinic belongs to SRH Kliniken GmbH.