Employees in focus

Three questions for Kurt Würsch

After 22 years at Orthotec, you are taking early retirement. How has your time with us been?

No two days were the same in wheelchair engineering. It goes without saying that our day-to-day business includes scheduling appointments for services, repairs and new deliveries. However, unexpected things happen every day. If an electric wheelchair suddenly stops working, you can’t leave it until the following week. You need to find a solution within a useful period of time. My daily motivation was always to coordinate everything as smoothly as possible. It’s really nice that our customers show a great deal of appreciation for our work and that we can make an important contribution to their quality of life.

I am proud of everything we have achieved for wheelchair users over the years. Today, Orthotec is almost four times as big as it was when I started. We have a fantastic team with highly qualified people. The workshop is state of the art with lifting platforms, a material lift, and new machines and tools. I come from the beautiful canton of Nidwalden and in the local dialect I would say that it has been a “riese Fraid” (great pleasure) to lead this team.

Which patient stories do you remember in particular?

Oh, there are so many of them! From beautiful to sad and to funny. Once my shirt caught fire after a mishap with a gas burner. I was just extinguishing my shirt, trousers and even underpants when a group of visitors entered the workshop on a guided tour of the SPC. I hid behind my customer who shielded me from view with her electric wheelchair. Once the group had left, I was able to get myself some different clothes. The customers still laughs about it when she sees me today.

I have never asked, but many people have told me about why they are in a wheelchair. That was always moving. One man, who had survived a plane crush, told me what went through his head when he realised that the plane was about to crash. Those are extremely personal moments.

One highlight was when wheelchair athlete Edith Wolf-Hunkeler approached me with a particular challenge. Manifesta, a large exhibition of contemporary art, was in Zurich in 2016. Edith was asked to glide over the water of Lake Zurich in her wheelchair on a specially constructed platform. In order to make sure that she could move forwards despite the water and the swell, I used special rear wheels with integrated electric motors. The performance was a success and everyone was happy.

I will also never forget my talks with Silvano Beltrametti who had an accident during a ski race in Val d’Isère in 2001. He wanted to know everything about his wheelchair so that, if it came down to it, he would be able to repair it himself when he was no longer in Nottwil. I recently spent a night at the hotel he runs in Lenzerheide. Although his visits to the workshop were 20 years ago, he still remembers them clearly.

A new era is going to start in late January 2022. What will it look like?

I’m leaving with a good feeling. We’ve had plenty of time to prepare my successors. My job will now be shared between two people: Kevin Huber will take on the New Devices and Sports Devices group and Beat Pfister will take on the Service and Repairs group. Kurt Galliker, who has a great deal of experience, will continue to manage the third group: Specialised Construction. Beat and Kevin are young and dynamic people who have ideas and want to achieve something. I hope they enjoy their work as much as I did.