Viewers respond with money and time to help design tiny wheelchairs for sick kids

A groundbreaking program at Tulane University is creating waves of change for young children with disabilities, providing them with specially designed chairs that offer newfound mobility and independence for free.

In December 2023, "CBS Mornings" lead national correspondent David Begnaud reported about the volunteers at the university and how they dedicate their time and skills to building the chairs with the help of 3D printing technology.

The chair design is simple yet effective, combining wooden bases and wheels with 3D-printed plastic attachments, all assembled by hand in child-friendly, bright colors. As each chair is personalized and signed by its makers, they carry messages of love and care from their creators to their young users.

The man at the front of the creation is Noam Platt, an architect in New Orleans who discovered the chair's design on an Israeli website — Tikkun Olam Makers — that lists open-source information for developers like him. His organization, Make Good, which focuses on devices that people can't find in the commercial market or can't afford, partnered with Tulane to make the wheelchairs for children.

"Part of it is really empowering the clinicians to understand that we can go beyond what's commercially available," Platt said. "We can really create almost anything."

Jaxon Fabregas, a 4-year-old from Covington, Louisiana, is among the children who received a chair. He is living with a developmental delay and dystonia, which affects his muscles. Before he received the chair, he was not mobile.

Jaxon's parents, Elizabeth and Brian Fabregas, said after eight months in the chair, Jaxon has been able to sit up on his own and now he's moving around independently.

"I mean it does help kids and it's helped Jaxon, you know, become more mobile and be able to be adapting to the other things," said Brian Fabregas.

The parents say that the toy-like chair was wonderful because it created a playful experience with Jaxon's older brother, Brody and has been the bridge from not walking to now using a walker.

"That's what made me happy 'cause it's like, he's included with everything," Elizabeth Fabregas said.

Another child, Sebastian Grant, who was born prematurely and spent months in the neonatal ICU, received a customized chair that could support his ventilator and tubes. The chair allowed him to sit upright for the first time in his life.

"This is a chair that he could be in and go around the house...actually be in control of himself a little bit," said Michael Grant, Sebastian's father. 

Since the story aired in December, more than $40,000 in donations rolled in. Platt immediately knew what to do, as he had heard from nearly 60 families who saw Jaxson's joy in the "CBS Mornings" report.

"I didn't quite expect the magnitude of outpouring after the story," Platt said.

People who saw the original story said they wanted to help build the life-changing chairs. Platt put some to work, and with his team at Tulane, they've built 25 chairs in the last five months. Platt calls the latest group of chairs students at Tulane built "some of the most sophisticated anywhere in the world."

Aside from the functionality, the chairs are also cost-effective. Platt estimates MakeGood is able to produce adaptive technology at an average of 1/7th of what it would cost on the commercial market.

He says each chair costs under $200 to build — a fraction of the $1,000 to $10,000 that a traditional wheelchair for small children might cost.

"We're actually working on bringing that price down to about $50," he said. "The work we're doing is not only extremely important. It's very inspiring to people, and it shows them that they actually have the power to change their environments, to provide more independence for themselves and really to affect change in their communities for relatively modest amount of work."

Platt and MakeGood have produced and delivered almost 200 items of assistive technology since December 2023. 

MakeGood is also supporting a young man in Pakistan with a spinal cord injury who is making similar wheelchairs – all by hand – and donating them to his community.