Recently I received a call from a person who had a walker they received from the Veterans Hospital. The walker had a broken cable, and they wanted to know if I could repair it. Having done a fair amount of work on bikes over the years, I agreed to take a look.
The next day he presented to the pharmacy with his walker. After taking a quick look at it, I determined that the manufacturer went out of its way to prevent simple cable replacements. It was designed to require a new hand brake set from the manufacturer: there was not a way to anchor a standard cable to the brake mechanism.
I am not one to shy away from a challenge. I had a cable and a casing in my toolbox so I went ahead and started the repair knowing that I was going to have to improvise. I spent a lot longer making the repair (30 minutes) than I would normally budget, but in the end I did manage cobble together a solution. The brakes worked and I was confident that they would hold.
I took the walker back out the waiting area and presented it to its owner. He was not one of my patients. Because he was a veteran, he receives his medications and other needs from the VA Hospital. He was very happy to see his walker functional again. I spent some time chatting with him. After a bit, he informed me that he was one day shy of his 99th birthday.
After a bit, he asked me what he owed me for the walker repair. I have always maintained that pharmacies should always charge for their service. To give service away minimizes the pharmacy’s contributions to health care. But in this case I made an exception. I thanked him for is service, helped him out of his chair, and sent him on his way. Today, he made HIS encounter count. I was proud to just have met and talked with him.
