You are to be commended for your role in Steve"s recovery. Neighbors like you make the world a great place. Here are some suggestions from long time personal experiences with recuperation, lifts, and power wheel chairs.
Power wheel chairs, unlike scooters, are assembled for each individual, longer seat "pan" for taller people, narrow "pan" for petites, many, many other specs. The legs straight in front, as many have mentioned, requires special balance considerations. I would expect insurance to cover the chair, in much the same way it is covering his hospital bills. It is a category called durable medical items.
At the hospital, there are helpers with Steve"s care, but at home those helpers disappear, and reliance on the equipment increases exponentially. Do not settle for a manual chair. With all the considerations, leg casts, physical size, etc., a manual chair will suit the insurance company fine, but not live up to the real world of recuperation.
An power chair can be fitted with an additional "attendant"s joy stick" on the back, and that is probably how the VA has them set up, so either the patient from the armrest, or the attendant from behind, can steer. I think many come with that feature. The joystick can be set by the supplier at high or low sensitivity to accommodate the patients abilities.
Get an electric wheel chair that "Tilts" (the whole seat, leg supports and back of the chair tip as one piece and allow the patient to remain in right angle sitting position, head goes down as feet come up) AND "Reclines" (only the back tips away from the seat, and allows the patient to more-or-less lay flat in the chair). As someone pointed out, "Recline" helps avoid pressure sores. "Recline" is also useful, and probably NECESSARY to get Steve in and out of the chair with his legs remaining straight. Reliance on home equipment increases exponentially once hospital helpers are gone.
Please know (as your doctors and therapists know) the exact, and I mean EXACT, wording of the prescription for the wheel chair will make all the difference in getting it "approved". Find an experienced rehab doctor or therapist who knows the "code words" the insurance company will be looking for, and be sure to ask your doctor to use them. It is so much easier to have it worded correctly the first time, and to get what you really need than it is to be denied and try to re-submit, and go thru all that hassle.
PS It is great they have a hospital bed and a room ready. Getting away from the hospital is a big step, and the less it looks like a hospital room the better. Make it as normal as possible. Face the bed toward a window if you can. Put a welcome sign on the door. Keep the coffee pot on. Have a comfortable visitors chair. Encourage visitors. Avoid white sheets.
PPS Did I mention the need for "Recline"? Just picture in your mind a patient in a lift sling, legs in casts, and trying to get the patients hips in a right angle so you can slide his seat in the wheel chair seat that is also a right angle. The Recline feature may be hard to convince them that it is needed, but you will thank your lucky stars that you have it many, many times over.
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