Eleven-year-old Savannah Smith was born with a rare neurodevelopmental disorder at birth that has made any movement and expression a challenge for her. However, this year, Savannah was able to participate in her town’s Halloween parade and announce “trick or treat,” thanks to a Magic Wheelchair and the efforts of designers and engineers from Dassault Systèmes who volunteered their skills and time.
Savannah’s parents have worked extra hard to let their daughter participate in activities that most 11 year olds take for granted, like marching in the Salem, Mass. annual Halloween parade and going trick-or-treating. They have in previous years adorned Savannah’s wheelchair and participated as the cast from the Wizard of Oz and Care Bears, but this year, they found a friend in Magic Wheelchair and received support from nearby Dassault Systèmes, which manages its SOLIDWORKS division and North American operations from nearby Waltham.
At the age of four, Savannah was diagnosed with a severe mutation of Ogden syndrome, a disease so rare that only 100 people in the world are thought to have it. In addition, Savannah has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Initially named N-terminal acetyltransferase deficiency, it became known as Ogden syndrome in 2011 after five boys in one family in Ogden, Utah, were discovered to have it. It is the result of a mutation of the NAA10 gene.
“She’s a pretty complex girl medically,” says Lacey Smith, Savannah’s devoted mother.
Savannah’s favorite TV show is The Voice, where celebrity judges in swiveling booths destroy the hopes of auditioning singers with an oversized red button. That was all the Dassault Systèmes/Magic Wheelchair team needed to hear. They set about creating the booth from the program complete with a big red button and fit it all on a wheelchair. Except Savannahs’ button is not a kill switch and looks more like a Big Mac. It will not dash anyone’s hopes. Hitting the button lets Savannah announce, “Trick or treat” and “Thank you. Happy Halloween!”
A CAD team, led by Chinloo Lama, User Experience design director at Dassault Systèmes, used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to design a chair with LED lights and speakers. Magic Wheelchair designs are all one-off creations, each customized to compensate for and help overcome the physical and mental challenges of their kids.
Magic Wheelchair, an nonprofit that makes “mobility costumes,” was started by Ryan Weimer, whose young son, living with SMA (spinal muscular atrophy), wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. Weimer built a pirate ship around his son’s wheelchair. Since then, Magic Wheelchair has let 280 families with children who are unable to walk on their own participate in parades and in cosplay (costume play) with some wonderfully imaginative and fantastic creations. The company supplies these creations to families at no cost, relying on donations and the donated labor of volunteers local to the family, who will design and assemble the wheelchairs.
Find out more about Magic Wheelchair at www.magicwheelchair.org.