NDAD provided much-needed assistance to Jenny Chavez years ago to help widen the doorways in the Devils Lake mobile home she purchased and also to install an accessible shower.

Jenny has quadriplegia caused by a 2000 auto accident. The 39-year-old uses a wheelchair and a wheeled commode that doubles as a shower chair.

By spring 2018, Jenny desperately needed to replace the shower chair/commode, now quite worn and unusable. Her insurance wouldn’t help her purchase a replacement – a serious worry given her limited budgeted income from Social Security disability.

By the time I’m getting stuff for the house, myself, bills, personal necessities,” Jenny said, “I’m broke.”

Jenny’s occupational therapist at Altru Health System in Grand Forks contacted NDAD, which quickly sent Jenny an application for general assistance. In a short time, the charity approved her application and ordered her a new portable shower chair/commode. For Jenny, it was a huge relief.

It tilts back. It works out great,” Jenny said. “Yeah, it’s a whole lot better now that I have this one....(NDAD) helped me out a lot. I’m really appreciative for that. . . . I don't know who I could have gone to if I would have been denied.”

Lora Machart, NDAD’s northeast North Dakota client services representative, was good to work with and “very helpful,” Jenny added.

NDAD was “just great to work with. It was so easy and fast,” she said. “I’m very happy and very satisfied.”

Published in October 2018.