Comfortable and quiet mattress is music to Oli’s ears
He may be confined to bed for the vast majority of his day, but 30 year-old Oli Groom has still managed to produce a music album and undertake tertiary studies.
Needless to say, having a good quality mattress is absolutely critical to Oli’s daily comfort and wellbeing.
The inspiring Kerikeri man has muscular dystrophy and has been unable to walk since he was 10. The genetic disorder is characterised by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness, so outings in his wheelchair aren’t as frequent as they once were.
Oli has a team of caregivers who come and go throughout the day, and he shares his home with several flatmates. He loves to create electronic dub music on his computer, and produced an entire album a few years ago which was for sale online and in local music stores.
“Ever since I was little I’ve been into music,” he says. “I was pretty enthusiastic about the stereo when I was 2 years-old. I’d turn it up really loud and annoy the neighbours.”
Oli has also completed a short course in mental health and addiction through NorthTec. Spending days at a time sitting up in bed while pursing these interests poses some significant challenges, particularly around pressure care and avoiding skin injuries.
“It’s very important to have a good mattress,” he explains. “It has to be comfortable and quiet because it does get annoying after a while if something’s really loud.”
Over the years Oli has had five or six different mattresses, most of which have been alternating air ones with individual cells that inflate and deflate to redistribute pressure on different parts of the body. However, noise is an ongoing issue and sometimes prevents Oli from getting a good night’s sleep.
Cubro recently supplied Oli with a new Winncare Axtair Automorpho® Axensor AT20 mattress which is manufactured in France. It is designed for people who are at high risk of pressure injuries and those who spend more than 15 hours a day in bed. It also helps treat existing stage 1 to 4 pressure injuries.
“This one is certainly the quietest and probably the best mattress I’ve ever had.”
The Axensor technology automatically and continuously calculates the inflation pressure required according to the user’s morphology and position, as well as the angle of the backrest.
“That’s great because I don’t have to worry about what setting it’s on,” Oli says. “It senses my weight and adjusts accordingly so that’s really quite useful. For a while there I lost a lot of weight and my old mattress had to keep being adjusted because it felt too hard. So we had to keep turning the pressure down.”
Oli says his new Axensor mattresses is a lot quieter compared to his previous alternating air mattresses, and is much better for sleeping. “This one is certainly the quietest and probably the best mattress I’ve ever had.”
"It senses my weight and adjusts accordingly so that’s really quite useful."
Cubro also supplied Oli with an additional memory foam topper to place over the Axensor mattress to help minimise his perception of movement as the cells inflate and deflate. “I’d recommend the memory foam – it makes a huge difference. I found it a bit uncomfortable before then because it moved a bit too much. The foam topper is quite amazing and now it’s just right for me.”
You can follow Oli's music on Facebook or take a listen on Soundcloud.
Cubro case studies are based on actual testimonials provided by real customers and users of our solutions. In some testimonials to protect the identity of the users, we have changed a name and used a stock photo. Our case studies describe our past work with customers and users, and detail solutions that have improved their quality of life. As each individual user has a unique set of needs and requirements, the content in these case studies should not be used as a substitute for professional advice from a registered clinician.
