Prachiti, born on 6^th January 2002 at 3.00 AM Sunday was seven months pre-maturely delivered baby. She weighed around 1.64 KG and cried only after 2 minutes of birth. It being a Sunday no Pediatrician was available with my Gynaecologist Dr Joshi at the time of birth of my child.

Dr.Shanbhag, the Pediatrician came to see her at 10 AM , after which they decided to admit her to Children’s Wadia Hospital NICU at 12.30 PM. There was a huge delay in admitting her to NICU which to me was negligence on their part.

In NICU, she was kept on Ventilator for 10 days. Doctors told us she had less chances of survival. They gave her many kind of injections and syrups and she was on Oxygen for 20 days. Since she suffered with high fever and convulsions once they took her EEG and reports showed some abnormality on 23^rd day from her birth. She was later put on syrup gardinal (1ml) in the hospital. Once suddenly at 3 am the Doctor asked us to arrange Plasma for her immediately for which we had to rush to many hospitals and finally could arrange for one with great difficulty.

During that period we were very tensed and under pressure. Whenever we would ask the Doctor about Prachiti’s   health, they used to say only one thing “your child is serious, her survival chances are less and we are trying our best”.’

After 15 days I was allowed to see her and feed her in the NICU though no other family members, not even her father, was not allowed to see her.

I was very happy to see her though. It was very difficult to feed her as she took about one and half hour to gulp 15ml milk unlike any other full term baby.

She was very slow to achieve 2.30 Kgs in weight. She was discharged from the hospital after 35 long days of several tests and we were given advice to do physiotherapy sessions with her once a week.

The tests she underwent is as below:

1. BERA TEST
2. EEG after 3 months
3. Sonography of Head

We were asked to go to Dr Rupa for physiotherapy at Wadia hospital once a week. I used to travel from Kandivali to Parel for the therapy. She used to cry a lot during the therapy sessions. The doctors only advised us to undergo physiotherapy however they never told us she was a cerebral palsy child and we need to work even harder with her. Although she did not have good head control upto 3 to 4 months of age, still we continued her therapy with lot faith.

We did BERA test at Ali Yawar Jung Institute at Bandra and EEG at 3rd month at Wadia hospital and thankfully both her reports were normal. Doctors recommended us to discontinue her gardinal syrup.

Dr. Rupa asked us to take her to ophthalmologist at Bombay Hospital for eye test as there was no improvement in her vision. At 1 year of age, Prachiti didn’t show much improvement in her health as sometimes her body became very tight and her legs were in seizer position. She used to cry a lot during her childhood and she often fell sick with high fever, cold and cough. Some times for her blocked nose, Dr Shanbhag gave her nebulization & many kinds of syrups.

When she was 1 year old, we went to Bombay Hospital to ophthalmologist Dr. Karobi Lahiri for her eyes check-up. After tests, Dr Lahiri gave her specs to wear. She didn’t like to wear them initially and used to throw them & cry a lot. After some period she got adjusted to the specs. She also underwent squint (eye’s) operation on 21/05/2003 as Dr Lahiri insisted us to have a quick surgery for her without wasting time any further.

When she was 1 year and 9 months old, I went to Pune for Ayuverdic treatment under Dr.Dhanjay Khasgiwale which we did for about 6 months. The doctor used to massage her body with some Ayurvedic Ghee made by them and they gave Ayurvedic medicine (powders with honey). She seemed to be doing good but since she did not like the massage and used to cry a lot, I decided to discontinue the treatment.

Again I started with Physiotherapy at Kandivali  under Dr Teju Shah. Meanwhile we shifted to Goregaon and had to restart her therapy.

Then we started again with physiotherapy sessions under Dr. Anjali Deshpande in Andheri at the age of 3. In between we also started Speech Therapy under Dr. Sanika Wad at Goregaon from 23/08/2004 to 25/02/2008. Dr Sanika took sessions of Prachiti for two times a week with half hour session. She used to show her different kinds of flash cards with pictures and symbols. Prachiti was doing well with Speech therapy and learnt different ways of understanding the world around her.

We used to visit Dr Anjali 3 times a week for 1 hour physiotherapy session.  Dr.  Anjali suggested us to visit Dr. Anieta for Neurological evaluation. Dr Anieta checked Prachiti on 11/06/2007 and suggested medicines: Liofen 10 – ½ – ½ – ½; Pacitane ¼ – ¼ – ¼ to loosen her tightness. She also suggested us to increase her dose after every 10 days. But I never gave her increased dosages as I noticed she became very drowsy and cranky after taking medicines. She also said Prachiti is very intelligent and must send her to school. On14/01/2008 when Prachiti was  6 years old we also visited Dr. Ashok Johari for Orthopedic evaluation and they asked us to go for 6 days therapy a week. So we visited Dr. Anjali  Deshpande accordingly and then slowly she was getting better with the help of therapy. However we could not see major changes in her. We kept on going for therapy for several years but without much of a change in her condition.

On 5-2-2009 when Prachiti was 7 years old, we underwent Botox Treatment under Dr Johari’s advice. Botox was injected to both her legs & right hand.

During that time it was very tough for us to handle her as she was wearing plaster for 1 ½ Months. Dr Johari changed the Plaster once in that 1 ½ month. The treatment was very painful for her as well as for us as parents to see our child in so much difficulty.

We were very hopeful about the Botox treatment as we thought that she will atleast start standing on her own. Her right hand was not well even after Botox.

Though physiotherapy and  Botox  never gave  me any  results but we never gave  up on therapy and we started therapy with Dr. Shree Ram  Bhatt ( BPT/ NDT, LOND ) on 11/11/2009.

In between I also gave her Homeopathy medicines under Dr Joshi for 2 years for her frequent fever and urinal infections. With Dr Joshi’s medicines Pratichi’s eye number reduced from -11 to -8.

In June 2010 we visited Dr. G. Oswal for Homeopathy treatment under reference from one of the parents. Dr.Oswal gave us so many CD’s of many patients cured by him and asked us to get EEG report done for Prachiti post which her treatment can get started. Though it was very difficult for us to do so, we did it and Dr Oswal started giving medicines to her. I gave him about six months but I did not get any results. The medicines they gave were very expensive and frequent travel to Pune was not possible for us.

In May 2011 I changed the therapist to Dr Rajeshree (NDT from US) who was near my house in Goregaon. The sessions lasted for about 30 to 45 minutes. She also suggested us to visit Dr. Shraddha for Sensory Integration Therapy as Dr  Rajeshree found sensory issues were high with Prachiti.

Dr. Shraddha used to take Prachiti for 2 Sessions of 30 minutes a week. She used to take Prachiti on different kind of swings, give hand function activities and texture of different material.

On Feb 2012 we were due for our 6 monthly appointment with Dr. Ashok Johari and he asked us to get ready for Botox Treatment and also suggested to increase dosage of medicines. However we were not prepared for it.

Prachiti was also developing a Hunch back which made us worried. Dr. Ashok Johari suggested us Spinal Brace to correct her sitting position.

Though we were on regular therapy with Dr Rajeshree and Dr Shraddha, there was no much improvement. With no other option, we needed to carry on with therapy.

On July 21, 2012 I read an article in Marathi newspaper ‘PARISSPARSHA’ on respected Dr Vasa and her work on Brain Damage patients. This was like a ray of hope for us as this treatment will not have any kind of medicines and botox treatment.

Dr Vasa gave us confidence in our first meeting with her and said that ‘One day your child will able to walk without any kind of medicines, splints, botox treatments’.

Prachiti now watches TV whereas earlier she used to only listen to the sound of TV. She has started recognizing characters in the serials. She also knows the timings of serials. She can relate advertisements on TV to daily life activity; eg. Advertisements on dandruff or tooth decay.

Dr Vasa is so kind and disciplined and her confidence towards the patients gave not only us but all parents more energy and hope who otherwise had lost all hope after treatments from various doctors.

Dr Vasa empowered me to work on my Prachiti. I proudly announce that I got results as I was empowered and I did it in safe environment of my home. It saved me from running for many hours of travelling, and waiting for my turn for therapist to see my child. Of course I also saved a lot of money.

Though therapists did their best, my child kept deteriorating. I feel we all parents need to ask why our child deteriorated?  I began to see change in Prachiti only when I worked on her myself with Vasa Concept.

As a parent I felt very proud that I am not giving any kind of medicines to my Prachiti. Under Dr Vasa’s advice and therapy she has improved a lot.