“I would have to give up the only trade I know”

He spent his whole career in the kitchen of the same Italian restaurant. Cooking is not a profession he happens to practise; it is where his heart is.

After an accident he could no longer put his full weight on one leg. In a kitchen that is a problem, because you stand the whole shift and you walk the whole shift. Those were exactly the two things he could no longer keep up. The conclusion seemed inevitable: he would have to give up the trade.

His employer wanted to keep him. They looked at how the kitchen works: where he stands, how he moves around, what distances he covers in an evening. On that basis an X-Y system was installed with the Standing Ovation mobility support. Two rails at right angles, one sliding over the other, so the mobility support does not move along a single line but can reach every point in the kitchen.

That was the decisive choice here. A chef does not work in one spot: he goes from the stove to the pass, to the fridge and back again. A single rail would have tied him to one track. Now he has his whole kitchen at his disposal, with a mobility support whose saddle is adjusted to his size and which carries part of his body weight.

He still moves around himself, and decides for himself where he goes. His leg simply no longer carries his full weight the whole shift.

The employer approved the adaptation and UWV (the Dutch employee insurance agency) contributed to the provision.

He still stands in his own kitchen.