© 2004 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.
Thursday, February 19, 2004
By Amber Smith

Stairs are an obstacle for people who use wheelchairs. So are the piles of snow on sidewalks. And so is the inability to look others in the eye from the sitting position.

A new mobility system that looks like a snazzy wheelchair helps remove those obstacles, and a Marcellus lawyer is one of the first people in the country to own one.

John Yuhas has been a regular at the Onondaga County Courthouse for the past 25 years. He's been in a wheelchair for the last three years as a result of Lou Gehrig's disease, a neurodegenerative disease also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Yuhas has lost the ability to walk, and slowly he's losing upper-body strength, too.

Years ago, Yuhas saw a television show featuring Dean Kamen, the inventor of the iBOT Mobility System, and was immediately intrigued.

"He knew he wanted one of these ever since," says his wife, Sarah Wiles.

He followed the technological development. The new device, made by Independence Technologies, a Johnson & Johnson company, received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in September. On Jan. 16, Yuhas got his own.

The chair powers across sand, gravel and snow like a four- wheel drive vehicle. It goes over curbs and climbs stairs. It even raises to balance on two wheels.

"It's absolutely incredible," says Yuhas.

He and Wiles got to enjoy a meal at the Inn Between, undaunted by the stairs at the restaurant's entrance.

"Part of what this gives him and what he's really noticed is the presence of being a person who's dealing with people at eye level," says Wiles.

From his position in a regular wheelchair, Yuhas says people look down to him as if he's got something wrong. Since having the chair and using it in its raised position, people say hello without focusing so much on the chair, he says.

In fact, at the courthouse recently, a woman who had seen the iBOT on TV anxiously described it to Yuhas. He says it took her about 45 seconds before she realized, "Oh, you're in it."

He's in it because he paid the $29,000 price. Now he's negotiating with his health insurer for reimbursement.