This Ontario man has waited over 2 years to replace his broken electric wheelchair

It was 4 a.m. on Boxing Day and Shawn Brush was stuck.

He was trying to watch Christmas movies when his electric wheelchair broke again. This time, it froze in a tilted position. The 62-year-old Burlington, Ont., man was trapped.

"I couldn't get in or out," he said. "My phone was on my bed. I managed to get into the bedroom. I drove in backward and was able to get halfway out of the chair and call the fire department. And that's when all my videos started going online."

Brush has been waiting two years for a new chair, and he's still waiting. The reason, he says, is a time-consuming bureaucratic process that slows down everyone who needs assistive devices. He's not speaking out for himself, he says, but for others in his position.

"There's all kinds of people going through this," he said. And "there's not one person I can blame."

Brush has morquio syndrome. The condition causes dwarfism, softer bones and a pigeon chest, among other complications. He's an Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipient.

It doesn't stop Brush from performing music, but he lives with chronic pain and says he's been in and out of a wheelchair for as long as he can remember.

In 2015, Brush got a new electric wheelchair through Ontario's Assistive Devices Program (ADP). The program helps people pay for wheelchairs and other devices.

He says he generally has to replace it every five years. By 2020, Brush says, it had broken down multiple times.

He says he has had months-long waits for repairs.

For example, he says in 2018 it took him from May to October to get the front wheels of his chair replaced, which means for most of that time, he was without the electric wheelchair. He had to use alternatives like a manual wheelchair.

Tracy Odell, president of Citizens With Disabilities Ontario, says she and others have dealt with long waits too. To get approval for new seating for her electric wheelchair, she says, she needed a physiotherapist to agree it was needed.

"Most people in my position, we know what we need. You don't need someone to tell you you've outgrown your shoe," Odell said.

She says she waited about 6 months before getting authorization, but she still hasn't heard if they have the part needed to make the fix.