EMIRATI GIRL PARALYSED BY HIT-AND-RUN INSPIRES CARERS WITH HER FIGHTBACK
▶ Meznah Basaloum is ready return to school with friends in September in her specially adapted wheelchair
The parents of Meznah Basaloum, 7, have lived through any family’s worst nightmare.
In August 2016, the young Emirati was walking in Abu Dhabi with her older cousin to feed her pet dove when the driver of a speeding car lost control.
The car ploughed into Meznah, leaving her crumpled body on the road, before the motorist sped off.
She is lucky to be alive. Meznah, who is a twin and one of five children, was in a coma for four weeks. She suffered severe bleeding to her brain and lungs, fractured hips and spinal cord damage that has left her paralysed from the neck down.
She has other related health problems and has been fitted with a pacemaker, but the remarkable girl is starting to show signs of recovery.
After 10 months of care in Germany, Meznah has returned home to Abu Dhabi to continue her therapy at Amana Healthcare.
A team of nurses provides daily physiotherapy and speech therapy, and a wheelchair activated by her mouth is giving her some independence.
It has been a long road, but nurses are confident she will be able to start school in September.
“When she came here, Meznah didn’t have a wheelchair,” says Patricia Smith, an Irish physiotherapist at Amana. “Now she is getting more independent and can stand in her chair at the same eye level as her twin sister.
“Her mum comes in every day but she is spending more time at home, which is the ultimate goal. Her parents want to get her back home by August so she can prepare for school.
“She has recovered so well and will start in a mainstream school in September, in the same year as her younger sister,” said Ms Smith. “It is quite rare to see someone so young recover so well and begin to function like a typically developing young girl.”
Meznah started to speak again in Germany after about three months of treatment. She remained there because doctors said not much could be done and therapy would not be enough.
Her parents heard about Amana, did their research and returned to Abu Dhabi to continue her rehabilitation, surrounded by family and friends.
Meznah is now part of the Early Intervention Programme, which is an educational outlet for children at Amana.
Spasticity in her muscles requires daily physiotherapy to prevent pain, contractions or loss of mobility that would stop her being able to operate her wheelchair.
A special positioning system in her bed ensures she is kept comfortable while lying down and she can operate a wheelchair with her chin or lips by pushing a joystick.
“Meznah presents as a quadriplegic, with no active movement in all four limbs,” says Dr Walid Rozik, a paediatrician at Amana.
“She does have active movement in her neck allowing her to rotate her head from side to side once it is supported from behind, so she uses a powered wheelchair that enables her to control the chair independently using head or chin controls.”
The hospital’s goal is to improve her quality of life, wean her off the ventilator and send her home.
Once there, she will be supported by home care services from Amana, where therapists and nurses will visit her house.
Meznah is also on a ventilator but she can breathe by herself for some time.
As a result of a lack of schooling since her accident, she is behind with her literacy skills but making good progress. It has been an extremely challenging time for her family, who did not want to discuss her progress.
Meznah’s situation was a huge shock to them all. Thanks to consultation and support from the Amana team, the family’s outlook has changed altogether to more positive and hopeful.
“Meznah is brilliant. Her speech is very good when you consider the damage to her brain,” Ms Smith says.
“She has learnt English very quickly and is now almost fluent, mainly because most of her care staff speak English. She is very clever.
“There is very little we can do with a spinal cord injury, so we are trying to make her as independent as possible and give her the best quality of life we can.”
She will start in a mainstream school in September, in the same year as her sister
PATRICIA SMITH
Physiotherapist, Amana Healthcare