Maheer was born on 8^th November 2007 at Ratnagiri.  C-section was done after 2 days of hospital admission on 20^th day of 9^th month of pregnancy.  Maheer’s weight was 3.5 Kg on birth.  First 5 days after birth, his health was absolutely fine.  On the 6^th day after discharge after coming home Maheer had problem in breathing, he was crying badly.  His body turned bluish black.  I took him to the doctor immediately.  Doctor told us he was having problem getting oxygen.  In retrospect now, I understand that he had lot of mucus in the lungs and that was problem. He was put on oxygen and taken to another hospital.  Here he was admitted at the ICU for 12 days.  When he was discharged, he was started on Gardinal syrup.  Doctors told us that he will be having delayed milestones.  He does not have eye contact with the objects and is not following light at all. Whenever he used to get fever, his hands used to shake slightly; doctor told us this is convulsion.  Also, he used to suffer from cough and chest congestion frequently.  When he was 5 months old, after waking up from sleep, he used to get jerks and his body would vibrate forcefully. Doctors told us these are myoclonic jerks. Whenever he used to wake up from sleep, he used to get anywhere between 30-45 jerks.I took him to many doctors, but all in vain. Doctors used to increase the dosage of the Gardinalmedicine but the jerks continued to persist.  He could not even hold his neck at the age of 9 months.When he was 10 months old, I used to take him to Kolhapur at Dr. Sanghvi Hospital; I could see no positive results here also.  Then I took him to Mission Hospital, Kolhapur where he was given many drugs at a time and again there were no results.  Then from there I brought him to Jaslok Hospital to pediatrician, Dr. Anand. He made us understand the brain damage of my son and asked us to see Dr. AnahitaHegde, who started him on Valparin and asked us to return after 3 months.  At Jaslok Hospital, brain MRI, EEG and BERA tests were done.  Doctors informed us that Maheerhas a patch of dead cells in his brain.  He was also given ACTH injection here; after taking 3 injections Maheer started turning bluish black; he was getting cyanosed.  I stopped those injections.  He also underwent physiotherapy at Bhakti Vedanta Hospital.

At 1.5 years of age, even now he could not hold his head-neck. There was no grip in his hands and there was no eye-to-object contact.The volume of his cry was too low.  Physiotherapy was being given to him but this too did not help him.  I also treated him with Ayurvedic medicines but it too didn’t help him.  At last, when Maheer was 2 years old, I came to know about Dr. Rajul Vasa from Ms. Naheed, one of my relatives.  Even after constant pleadings from her for 6 months, we did not take any action. I did not have the guts to take Maheer to Mumbai again.  Then Dr. Shinde, whose father is also our good family friend told us about Dr. Rajul Vasa.  He told us about the progress of Nachiket from Ratnagiri.  Still I did not bother to find more information about Dr. Vasa.  Again Naheed pressurized us.  Also Ms. Vaishali Patwardhan (Nachiket’s mother) who was already treating her son under the guidance of Dr. Vasa, approached us.  Nachiket had shown great improvement with Vasa Therapy.  I took Maheer to Dr. Vasa and she infused some strength in me.  I was caring for my child literally like a robot.I  would feed him time to time, make him bath, wear clothes, everything was done mechanically, I  never waited and watched his responses.  I would make him lie down and would feed him.  It was madam who explained me this is a wrong way of feeding.  Then I started feeding him in sitting posture.  With Rajul madam’s treatment; my son too started showing great improvement.  Within 3 weeks after starting his therapy with Rajul madam, Maheer began holding his neck.  Rajul madam asked us to do deep passive forced breathing every half an hour with Maheer, this made Maheerto puke out tons of sticky secretions, sticky mucus, I wondered from where it came, how his body stored so much sticky thick mucus? Was it in lungs? Any way my child started breathing well, his voice became loud and his jerks reduced despite stopping all the medicines that were being given to him and to our surprise his drowsiness disappeared and his face and body skin started looking fresh and healthy.  He became very active and started doing various movements.  His understanding started improving and he could feel my absence now.  His volume while crying increased now.  He was also passing his stools regularly now.  His jerks reduced by almost 50% despite stopping all his antiepileptic drugs.  I could see tremendous changes in Maheer since starting the therapy.

When Maheer was 1.5 years old his weight was 16 kgbecause of the antiepileptic drugs.  He was so heavy that I couldn’t lift him. After starting with the therapy, he started reducing weight.My child could not sit with loose muscles of his body. Madam asked us to make him sit in the beanbag, it helped; he at least sat and could help his head neck to get stable and hold itself. In the second week itself starting treatment with madam, he started sitting without back support in the beanbag.  Before he never used to put fingers in his mouth and he could turn only on left side, whenever he slept he used to lie down on his stomach, and he was not able to hold his neck for long time; now he could put his fingers in his mouth and when he lies on his stomach, he balances his neck well by taking pressure on his hands and tries to move downwards; in the 2^nd week of January after starting therapy with madam, he started turning over on both sides.  Now he sleeps less and plays more.  He is now able to hold his milk bottle on his own which he couldn’t do earlier.  Now his hand grip also improved.  Most importantly, he could sit alone by taking pressure on his hands without any splints to support elbow.  After few days of this, he could sit all alone without even any hand support.  Now he is very mischievous and playful.

We are grateful to Rajul madam for taking our son to a new level, we are quite hopeful that one day our son will be as normal as the other normal children in this world.