Teen forced to use wheelchair designed for 8-year-old during NDIA wait

A Doreen teenager was forced to remain in a wheelchair designed to fit a child while waiting for more than a year for the NDIA to approve crucial mobility equipment.

A wheelchair-bound Doreen teenager developed pressure sores on his legs after being forced to remain in a wheelchair made for an eight-year-old while waiting for more than a year for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to approve new equipment.

Ben McLarty, 14, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a severe type of muscular dystrophy which causes progressive muscle degeneration — also had to wait one-and-a-half years for a hoist, five months for a motorised wheelchair and he is still waiting on a shower chair his family first asked for in October 2017.

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His tiny wheelchair had been “squishy and uncomfortable”, Ben said.

Ben’s mother Sarah McLarty said it was “difficult to watch” her son, who aspires to be a music producer, have to live without the appropriate equipment because one of his goals is to remain living at home for as long as possible.

The average life expectancy for people with the condition is 26, and at present there is no cure.

“I guess we are kind of the luckier ones because we do have some of the equipment,” Ms McLarty said.

Comments on a support page revealed they were not the only ones who had been forced to live in pain because of NDIA delays, she said.

Out of sheer desperation, Ms McLarty sought help from McEwen Federal Labor MP Rob Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell told Whittlesea Leader Ben and his family had been “failed in many ways by the NDIS”.

Federal Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten with McEwen federal Labor MP Rob Mitchell.

“My team and I raised Ben’s case directly with the NDIA, then with the minister when it became clear that we were not reaching a satisfactory and timely solution,” Mr Mitchell said.

An NDIA spokesperson who refused to be named said the NDIA “apologises” to the McLarty family.

The NDIA was investigating the status of the request for a shower chair, the spokesperson said.

They did not respond to questions about whether the equipment wait times were acceptable.