After not being able to transport critical medical equipment on vacations with his brother-in-law, Stephane Poussou has dedicated his career to making sure those with special needs get opportunities to travel wherever they want to go.
“My brother-in-law a few years ago had a car accident,” Poussou said. “He was paralyzed. He had a spinal cord injury. He was able to finish college when he graduated he wanted to celebrate so he said ‘Let’s go to Vegas.’”
That celebration turned stressful as they called multiple medical equipment companies for five days to find a medical bed provided by a hotel. When they finally thought they found what they were looking for, they found the wrong type of bed in their hotel room.
This struggle led to the birth of his new company, Handyquip.
“Handyquip was made to make travel easy by renting medical equipment easily,” Poussou said.
Handyquip is also a great tool to test out certain equipment before making the very large purchase for something of their own.
The company currently provides medical beds, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and bath safety equipment.
“If you have a short-term injury, maybe you’re having surgery, you may not have the time to arrange with your insurance or you may not have insurance, and Handyquip gives you the opportunity to rent on a short-term basis,” Poussou said.
Handyquip partnered with Jacksonville Beach’s Medequip store, where users can pick up their rented equipment.
The family-owned store says Handyquip will not only benefit the community but their store as well.
“It’s going to help us to grow, said Britt McManemy, a member of the family business. “We’re three generations and hopefully we can be four and five generations with things like this.”
Poussou says he hopes once his website starts gaining traffic that the company can expand to other vacation destinations.