Life to the Max Podcast
Welcome to 'Life to the Max Podcast,' where resilience meets inspiration!
Join us on a transformative journey through the life stories of remarkable individuals, including Quadriplegic Army Veteran Maximilian Gross. In this empowering podcast, we dive into tales of triumph, courage, and the human spirit's unwavering ability to overcome obstacles.
Our show is a celebration of diverse narratives, from awe-inspiring achievements to the darkest of traumas. 'Life to the Max' is a testament to the power of living authentically, no matter the circumstances. We believe that everyone has a unique story worth sharing, and we invite individuals from all walks of life to join us.
Discover the profound meaning of living 'Life to the Max'—a concept that resonates differently with each storyteller. It's a journey of perspective, resilience, and finding joy amidst life's challenges. Tune in to be inspired, motivated, and reminded that there's strength in every story.
Ready to redefine what it means to live life to the fullest? Share your story with us and become a part of this uplifting community. Because, at 'Life to the Max,' every story matters.
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Life to the Max Podcast
Thomas "Never Quitter": Reclaiming Freedom Through Open-Source Mobility
Thomas Daniel Queter's powerful statement sets the tone for this eye-opening conversation: "When your wheelchair breaks down, you become unseen and unheard." Recording from the Abilities Expo in Chicago, this speedcast features the founder of the Mobility Independence Foundation sharing his revolutionary approach to mobility equipment access.
Born with osteogenesis imperfecta and having experienced approximately 2,000 fractures throughout his life, Thomas found himself trapped in his apartment for five years when the healthcare system offered only wheelchairs that would have led to injury. His solution? Creating an open-source wheelchair design that lasts 30 years, charges in just six hours, and can be built by community members with basic technical skills. The contrast is stark – while people typically wait 1-3 years for wheelchairs through insurance.
The conversation exposes troubling realities about mobility equipment access, including Medicare's "in-home rule" which states equipment only needs to be adequate for moving between bed and bathroom.
Thomas's passionate message resonates throughout: "If you have a problem, there is a solution. Build teams, find your tenacity, do not give up." Check out The Mobility Independence Foundation at THEMIF.org and watch for their documentary "The Power to Move" to learn how you can support this important movement revolutionizing access to mobility equipment.
What's up, guys? As you can see, we're not in the studio at home. We're actually at the Abilities Expo in Chicago and this podcast is going to be a little different. It's going to be like a speedcast. The sound is not going to be as great because of how wide open this space is, but I hope you guys enjoy it. Please enjoy this. Lif to the Max podcast. What is up, everybody? It is Life to the Max podcast and we are at the Ability Saxo in Shopper, illinois. Today. It is June 20th 2025. It's a Friday and I have the man of the hour. He can say his name pretty quick.
Speaker 2:Thomas Daniel Queter. Never quitter, rarely quieter.
Speaker 1:So is your real last name quitter, quitter Quitter. Yes, oh God.
Speaker 2:It's from old French. It used to be a verb quitter. It means too free Too free, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, tell me a little bit about yourself, man.
Speaker 2:So I'm the founder of the Mobility Independence Foundation T-H-E-M-I-Forg, and I founded it to create open source hardware for DME, like wheelchairs. Yes, and I did that because I was actually crapped in my apartment for five years because the systems in New York told me I couldn't have an adequate wheelchair. It offered me a range of wheelchairs that would have led to injury and going to the bed and most of us with disabilities know, we know what going to the bed means right, that's the end.
Speaker 2:And I wasn't ready for the end, so I created teams. I created a team of engineers and outreach professionals to develop what I'm sitting in, which is our flagship prototype. Professionals to develop what I'm sitting in, which is our flagship prototype the Endurance Power Chair Good for 30 years, completely repairable, made from off-the-rack components and materials, and any community typically has the people, the skills, to put it together. In fact, in Arizona last year we were at a STEM center that teaches high school and college students tech. We were at a STEM center that teaches high school and college students tech and we're telling the president about what goes into this product, which is open hardware, and he pipes up and he calls a 16-year-old from across the room, tells that 16-year-old everything we just told him and asked that kid, how long would it take you to build this if you had all the parts in front of you? And the kid thinks about it for a minute, shrugs and says three weeks. Now, typically, people are waiting one to three years for a chair through the system. That's the average Wow.
Speaker 2:And you know, if we can do this in a matter of weeks, why are we waiting years?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I hate that. I'm very lucky I'm a veteran, so the VA takes care of it. But I hate when I hear that about the disabled community and how much more you guys are known, how much the disabled community is neglected. It's very sad.
Speaker 2:But the reality is that most of these are pre-made and sitting in a warehouse and we're waiting on bureaucracy approval.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's probably more supply than demand. Right, a hundred percent oh.
Speaker 2:And you know the regulations and rules on durable medical equipment can put these companies in such a box that they're not able to reach outside that box and create better equipment. We most often hear from them we wish we could do better. Right, absolutely. Think about that. In this realm, you know our mobility. These big corporations wish they could do better. And the rules that we put in for quote-unquote safety, which is an oxymoron, because wheelchairs make the top 30 most dangerous consumers' goods list guns, don't? I mean? That's quite the comparison right there. Yeah, you know, and the reality is I'm a farm boy, I grew up on a farm, everything I loved was outside and I was trapped in my apartment for five years. Everything that was my purpose was on the other side of a wall.
Speaker 1:May I ask what happened to you?
Speaker 2:I was born with a congenital disability known as osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bones disease is what it gets called. A lot, I've had about 2,000 fractures in my life, but they don't hold me back 2,000 fractures.
Speaker 1:Holy man, dude. I just talked to someone who had 100 surgeries. Yeah, I've only had a handful of those, that is. That's insane man, and you still like persevere, go outside. Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2:Upstate, new York, the edge of the Catskill Mountains. And that's the interesting thing about this product it's open hardware. So when we release these designs at the end of the year, anybody can go on the internet, our website, get that design and facilitate the build. You raise the money to buy the parts. You work with non-profits that are already working to repair wheelchairs. They can help you. They have the skills. Your small fabrication, welding, auto repair all of these shops that we already have have the ability to put this together and most of them, because they're in their community, they know who you are. They'd be willing to pitch in.
Speaker 1:So what's the difference between your chair and like Quantum and Permobil?
Speaker 2:I'm glad you said Quantum. So our mechanical engineer who has full body CP, by the way, we were in his shop last year and he points to the prototype that he's helped us develop and he says everywhere, and he points to a Quantum thatuties who helped us develop, and he says everywhere and he points to a quantum that he's got sitting in his shop because he also repairs things for other people and he says mall Right, and that's if you can even get there.
Speaker 2:The difference is that I can treat this chair like a four-wheeler for three days in the Catskill Mountains before I have to charge it, and then it only takes six hours to charge. We can use better tech that's off the shelf and readily available than what these companies are allowed to use.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah, and I think it's absurd that you have to wait three years for a wheelchair.
Speaker 2:Three years if you're in a Medicaid, Medicare-managed plan. Yeah, the interesting thing there is well, it's black and white on paper who has to pay for your chair. They actually spend that extra year arguing over who pays for it. That's bureaucracy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and bureaucracy is terrible. It really is like it's all about money and capitalism at the end of the day. So I totally understand where you're coming from and I think it's great that you're trying to help out everybody out there who can't get a wheelchair, because no one wants to be bent down me back down and not just can't get a wheelchair, but you know, wbur out of Boston reported recently that 50% of all wheelchairs break down in a six-month period.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the average wait time for repair is five months. So you gain a disability when you already have a mortgage and a spouse and children and as an advocate for 28 years, I'm saying you will lose them, you will lose them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then you will lose your mind right, because it's sad, you know, when you lose your spouse, like fortunately for me, I was in. My girlfriend left me two months into my car accident. I'm a veteran from the military, yeah, and I was driving home and I switched seats with my buddy. I said, wake me up and we get to Chicago. I woke up in a hospital like three days later, couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't do anything. It was crazy Paradox.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry you went through that, but hey, what could you know? Couldn't move, couldn't do anything. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:Paradox. I'm sorry you went through that, but hey, what could you know? You're out and you're doing, yeah Right, and I'm happy you're here. Man, you're like, really like putting you know, trying to make a difference. I mean, like you mentioned, you even commanded against Congress.
Speaker 2:That is the ultimate goal. So we just released well, we just started at the film festival tour with our documentary, thepowertomovefilmcom, and it's about why we can't get appropriate equipment in terms of today's technology. Right yeah, everybody has a cell phone. Look at how fast that's moving forward. Oh. I know Right 20 years ago, what was that cell phone?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was a flippy thing that broke really easily. And now these Apple smartphones. You could drop them on the concrete floor and run them over with your knobby wheelchair tires and they're fine. But you know, when your wheelchair breaks down, you become unseen and unheard.
Speaker 2:And in terms of going up against Congress. One thing that we're really hot on is what's called the Medicare in-home rule, and that in-home rule applies to almost all insurance, because they're all federally subsidized. Now, the in-home rule states that your equipment only has to be good enough to get you from your bed to your toilet and back that's so up, yeah the reason I was denied inappropriate wheelchair which was still on the market at the time I fought it for five years.
Speaker 2:Um was market at the time. I fought it for five years was because so you're treating us like aliens?
Speaker 2:Going outside was not an adequate justification. I live in the country we burn wood for heat, and apparently they thought that house fires don't happen to people with disabilities. I don't know, but you know there's another part of this too. My father's lifelong farmer. That's his purpose, right? You know people's another part of this too. My father's a lifelong farmer. That's his purpose, right? You know, people develop a purpose in life. They have a goal, they have a thing they do. It's what keeps them going, and living, yeah, yeah. And my father had a stroke.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2:Thank you. After the stroke he could manage a step or two, so they wouldn't approve him for a power chair. They gave him one of those crappy hospital-style manual wheelchairs to go back home and live on a farm. Now his purpose just like when I was trapped for five years was outside right. His purpose was managing the farm. Yes, and I was his daytime caregiver because family all pitched in and I watched the strongest, hardest working man also a veteran give up and die. He gave up and died because they wouldn't give him an adequate wheelchair.
Speaker 1:So I understand you saw a problem and you wanted to fix it.
Speaker 2:I do believe in solving problems right, and so does our mechanical engineer, Devin Hamilton. You can see his company at rapadaptcom.
Speaker 1:I'll make sure to leave everything in the description below 100%. I think it's amazing what you're doing for the community. I don't like these big-ass companies in Quantum and Permaville no offense, it's nothing against it because there's a lot of really nice people that want to help people in wheelchairs. But they just get the. They get set, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, the reality, though, is they want to do better, but our laws and regulations on this don't allow them to. Yeah, and so how are they? Who are we supposed to be mad at here?
Speaker 1:The company or the government.
Speaker 2:Congress. Yes, when the ACA passed, if you go back in history and you look at the stock portfolios of Congress, that spiked. And what people forget about the ACA is that it was not written for us. Right, I was covered for a wheelchair, just not one that wouldn't kill me. The reality is that the ACA 85% of it was written by Republicans in the 80s to bolster profits for insurance companies, and the Democrats call that their big win. And so which side are we supposed to believe in this? Are any of them on our side? That's the real question. Are any of them actually on our side, as the people of this country?
Speaker 1:So what I noticed becoming disabled is that the first people, the first community that gets hit the most whenever something happens say the stock market crashes or like there's a terrorist attack it's the disabled 100%.
Speaker 2:We get forgotten and left behind in natural disasters. You see this with hurricanes, Katrina. All kinds of living institutions full of the elderly and people with disabilities were just forgotten or abandoned. It actually happened in Haleen, too, in West Virginia. A friend of mine wants to develop a rescue boat for wheelchairs because of how many people he saw in institutions that weren't being rescued.
Speaker 1:Well, there's so much more I could talk to you about. Are you in the area or do you live in New York?
Speaker 2:So I still live in upstate New York, but in the last two years, in the last two years I have crossed the Mississippi 16 times.
Speaker 1:Well, my friend, if you ever want to come on the podcast for a full, full interview, like I would have, I would fly you in, if you're okay with that.
Speaker 2:I can't fly because wheelchairs are the number one most damaged luggage item a drive.
Speaker 1:I will pay for your gas and I have a place for you to sleep and all that stuff. It's an honor meeting you today. Well, I wish you no offense. Sorry, what was your name?
Speaker 2:Thomas Daniel Quader.
Speaker 1:Thomas Daniel Quader, who is not a quader, by the way.
Speaker 2:And rarely quieter.
Speaker 1:Rarely, quieter, yep, and he's a far boy at large and you're going to continue doing that and I love what you're doing for the community. Man, do you have anything you want to say to the people out there?
Speaker 2:You know, I say the same thing that I say to anybody in any place where there might or is a group of people with disabilities If you have a problem, there is a solution, and the best way to approach that is to build teams, go after it, find your tenacity, do not give up. When you stop, that's when it ends.
Speaker 1:Yes, that was beautiful. Thanks so much, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. Podcast everyone like comment subscribe. That's beautiful Thanks. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you, I appreciate you.