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Innovative Hongkonger designs a new toilet for sufferers of Parkinson’s disease

Emily Tang came up with a device which eliminates the need for patients to turn around and bend down to use the toilet seat

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Emily Tang hopes to introduce her design to the government, for use in hospitals. Photo: Handout

When Emily Tang started work on her final year project in industrial and product design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, she had her grandfather, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, in mind. Tang chose to create something that would help such patients.

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“A lot of people think [Parkinson’s] is brain-related, but actually it only involves motor skills. The brains of patients are still very active. It’s just their limbs that become slower and more rigid, and they suffer from tremors,” she said.

“When I was taking care of [my grandpa], I realised there were many things that he had trouble doing in his daily life, so he became more dependent on family members. One of his biggest problems was going to the bathroom.”

With support from her professor, whose mother also has Parkinson’s, Tang, 23, came up with Libue – a toilet design that can be used by both patients and their family members.

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She said: “I was looking at the whole toilet process and how people needed to turn around if they had to use the seat.

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