Nine-year-old from Bonn Health insurance company covers cost of new buggy for handicapped boy

BONN · After the long Easter weekend there is still no trace of the rehabilitation buggy belonging to nine-year-old Kacper from Bonn, which was stolen on Friday. There has been huge willingness to help all over Germany. The insurance company also wants to help quickly.

Bonn police currently have no leads on the missing rehabilitation buggy belonging to nine-year-old Kacper. As reported, the severely handicapped boy’s buggy was stolen from the hallway of an apartment building on Kaiser-Karl-Ring in Bonn in the early hours of Good Friday by currently unidentified perpetrators. Kacper suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy, and can only walk for short distances. The buggy is very important to the Wilde-Kawa family as it means their son Kacper can go to school and on outings with his parents. “We don’t know how we’ll manage without the buggy,” Bernadeta Wilde-Kawa told this newspaper on Tuesday morning.

During the afternoon there was good news from the Techniker-Krankenkasse (TK), where the boy is insured. “We have already been in contact with the mother today. As soon as we have a copy of the report to the police and a new cost estimate for the new buggy from a medical supply store, we will immediately approve the claim and initiate the order,” confirmed TK spokesperson Christian Elspas when asked by this newspaper. “There will be no new costs for the family.” According to Elspas, this is also the case with other theft cases similarly handled by TK. However, a case-by-case examination is always necessary in the case of such individually adapted buggies or wheelchairs.

A neighbour saw the buggy at 2am on Friday morning locked in the hallway but by 9am it had disappeared. The family immediately filed a complaint, but police officers did not give them much hope. “The buggy does not have a frame number that we can search for,” said police spokesperson Simon Rott. However, Bernadeta Wilde-Kawa reports that the Bonn police intensified their investigations again on Tuesday.

The rehab buggy is specially adapted to Kacper and his needs. The family is currently using an old buggy that Kacper has already outgrown. The replacement buggy is, according to his mother, not completely functional and has another, more serious problem: “Kacper can unbuckle himself and run away,” explains Wilde-Kawa. This means it is even more important that a buggy adapted to his needs is quickly available to the family. “It took a load off my mind,” said Wilde-Kawa after talking to the health insurance company. She was surprised at how uncomplicated the conversation was.

In recent days, numerous users of social networks had already got together and offered their help. Coverage by this newspaper also reached several hundred thousand users in social networks. “Is there already an account for donations,” or “It would be a joke if we couldn’t get 4000 Euro together,” were only two of the many offers of help from the internet. “We are very grateful,” says the 33-year-old mother. The confirmation by the health insurance company that they will help quickly and above all at no cost, means this is no longer necessary.

(Original text: Sebastian Fink. Translation: kc)

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