May 25, 2007
Iraq War Veteran and power mobility device user, Bryan Anderson, has taken a role as spokesperson for Quantum Rehab, a division of Pride Mobility Products Corporation.
Anderson, a 26-year-old who was awarded a purple heart, uses the Q6000 power chair. He will attend Abilities Expos, ISS Clinician Shows and various consumer shows across the country to promote consumer education while evaluating the latest product innovations and consumer services from Quantum Rehab. Anderson will also work with Pride’s Owners Club through the interactive Web Talk message boards, a series of live online chats and a monthly blog on www.pridemobility.com.
During his second tour in Iraq in 2005, the Humvee in which Anderson was riding was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He lost his right leg at the hip, his left leg six inches below the hip and his left arm below the elbow. In the early days of what would be a year of rehab at Walter Reed, Anderson’s parents selected the Q6000 power chair. Anderson recalls, “I was in and out of consciousness at the time and the medications made it necessary for my dad to pick out a chair for me. Like any father, he wanted the best for me so, after some intense research, he went after the top of the line for me and selected the Q6000.”
Pete Lancaster, owner of Patient First Medical Equipment Company, is Anderson’s provider. The two met while Anderson was in rehabilitation at Walter Reed, where Lancaster spends time, assisting veterans with various levels of injury and ability to find and use the appropriate mobility product. Lancaster said the Q6000 was the logical power chair choice for someone like Anderson.
“At first, we did have the speed programmed down a bit, until he got used to it,” Anderson says, “but Bryan made us change that pretty quickly. He doesn’t do things slowly very much.”
Anderson is now living independently and since leaving Walter Reed, he has experienced skiing and rock climbing in Colorado, water skiing and jet skiing, hiking, biking, as well as table tennis and archery at the National Wheelchair Games in Alaska.
He appeared on the cover of the January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine, and has received extensive media coverage including feature stories in the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Sun Times. He has also appeared on FOX News and CNN.
