Yemen kids suffering from cerebral palsy in city for treatment
As the world celebrated cerebral palsy day on October 7, Mumbai doctors are offering a new ray of hope to children from the war-stricken country of Yemen to stand on their feet. Two families are currently in India for treatment said that since medical facilities in their country are focused on treating war victims, they have found hope in Indian cities like Pune, Bangalore, and Mumbai where the doctors are treating cerebral palsy patients who could not have stood on their feet otherwise.
Cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder is a result of abnormal brain development often before or immediately after the birth. Patients show symptoms like impaired movement related with abnormal reflexes, floppiness or rigidity of the limbs, abnormal posture, involuntary movements, unsteady walking, or in some cases combination of these.
In the backdrop of world cerebral palsy day, families from Yemen, a middle-eastern country facing the brunt of civil war, said the Indian doctors are offering hope to their children, suffering from the congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Atul Bhaskar said that he has treated at least four to five Yemen-based children, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Two of them, Talal and Abdul Rehman underwent surgeries for contracture removal last week at Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road.
“A year after he was born, we realised that he is not able to walk or stand properly. We stay at a small village known as Yafee and it is a two days journey for us to get our children to a hospital,” said Mohammad.
Families of Talal and Abdul said that majority of the medical resources of the country are focused on attending to the war. “None of the hospitals we visited offered any surgery or treatment to make our children stand or walk,” Mohammad added.
Coincidentally, both the families, from the same village, got to know about treatment options in Mumbai, but only met at Mumbai airport. While they came to the city on October 1, Dr Bhaskar and his team in a correction surgery removed the contractures in the knees of the children.
“Surgeries are only 40 per cent of the work, the real task is the physiotherapy which can strengthen the muscles and help the children stand and walk. We will be training the family members on physiotherapy so that after going back home, they don’t have to hunt for a professional physician or physiotherapist,” said Dr Bhaskar.
The family members said that in their own village, there are about 25-30 children, who are facing similar complications but have no treatment options. The absence of an Indian Embassy since past four months makes it difficult for the Yemen is families to find treatment options and avail medical visa to travel to India.
Raniya Karim, a former Indian embassy employee, said that she has helped at least 15-20 families, both adult and children, to attain medical visa.
“Civil unrest has resulted in a scarcity of resources and also since the majority of the locals are farmers, they don’t have the monetary strength to travel to India for treatment. But now with non-government organisations like Red Cross, families are travelling to cities like Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore for the treatment of Cerebral Palsy,” said Karim.
Both families are likely to return home by the end of October. They will remain in touch with the doctors over the phone to take the treatment forward.
“We are creating graphical charts, videos and will teach the families on video conferencing so that we can communicate with them and help the children walk,” Dr. Bhaskar added.
Ou r country is more focused on treating war victims than other patients. Civil unrest has resulted in a scarcity of resources and also since the majority of the locals are farmers, they don’t have the monetary strength to travel to India for treatment. But now with non-government organisations like Red Cross, families are travelling to cities like Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore — RELATIVES OF PATIENTS