Nonprofit Hudson wheelchair repair shop shuts its doors

David Heim, a Hudson resident who repaired expensive electric wheelchairs and other medical devices at low cost, has closed down his shop.

Heim, who ran the nonprofit Wheelchair Recycler service, gained fame when he received Christopher Reeve's wheelchair after the actor died and used its parts for other disabled people's chairs.

Heim said his success led to one problem: He eventually received so many donated wheelchairs that he ran out of space to keep them all. Until this past winter, he had worked out of a storage facility in Marlborough, often repairing chairs in the facility's parking lot.

Without the space to store the surplus parts he needs to offer cheap or free services, he said, he decided earlier this month that he would rather shut down than throw away expensive electric chairs he couldn't store.

-- John Dyer