Center puts patients on road back to society

PATIENTS recuperating at the Shanghai Fifth Rehabilitation Hospital are being helped to return to society with a number of simulations including crossing the road, shopping and cooking.

A family environment simulation room on the sixth floor of the hospital’s rehab center is equipped with a toilet, shower, stove and cooking utensils. A simulated convenience store is also set up in the room.

Under the guidance of therapist Jiang Xuejun, Lu Renjie, who suffers from partial paralysis, enters the simulation room and begins shopping.

Hemiplegic patients like Lu can partially recover after treatment, but few can recover completely.

The optimum period for the best results is from one week to six months after the condition occurs, so patients need to begin recuperation as soon as possible, Jiang said.

“My father was a chef and the kitchen was his battlefield. But after he got ill, he never had a chance to touch cooking utensils. When we heard of the simulated kitchen in the rehab center, we wanted to let him experience that,” one of Lu’s children said.

A zebra-crossing on the second floor of the rehab center is where Wang Yimin, another hemiplegic patient, crossed the road before the simulated traffic lights turned red.

“Finally I crossed the 15meter road before the traffic lights turned red. Every day I have a small target to achieve,” said Wang.

“The intermission between the traffic lights changing colors can be changed according to a patient’s requirement,” said therapist Li Yanjun.

The rehabilitation center also holds activities such as birthday parties, painting, handcrafts and reading to help patients recover.