Rohan was born prematurely in 7th month through normal delivery on 15th August 1985. He was kept in NICU in incubator for 7-8 days and discharged from hospital after 21 days. Rohan did cry well at the time of birth. When he was 7 to 8 months old we realized that there is some problem with him. We observed that his body anatomically was in abnormal shape, especially the legs. We got concerned and took him to the doctors to know what was wrong with our child. We consulted pediatricians in Nasik but nobody could guide us in terms of diagnosis and prognosis of our child. When he was 1.5 year-old Dr. Vijaya Shah in Thane told us that he is a spastic child and referred us to the spastic society in Colaba. For two years, regularly we used to follow up there to learn exercises. Then we started doing therapy in Nasik from local therapist.

In 1999 we consulted famous orthopedic surgeon & well-known physiotherapists, they did Botox twice to Rohan and we started therapy under there guidance. During the period from 2001 to 2007, Rohan underwent surgeries for hip dislocation and ankle surgeries on both feet for correction of the foot deformity. In March 2008, we took Rohan to Arya Vaidya Shala kotakkal for ayurvedic treatment for 28 days. During period of 2009 to 2011 he underwent stem cell therapy thrice. From all these various treatments, Rohan did not get much benefit. We feel sad to mention that as on today, even we are unable to recollect how many procedures our child has undergone and how many specialist doctors and therapists we have consulted since his birth.

On the social front, we always observed that people are ready to help us and we really thank Rohan for that. Because of him, we got the opportunity to see the good part of society and how helping the peoples, I would mention here without fail that my in-laws supported me a lot to take care of my child.

When he was 7-year-old we started his education with help of writer. In 2005, he passed his 10th (SSC) exams, in 2007 he passed his 12th (HSC) exams and in 2010 he completed his B.Com.

During the last 27 years Rohan needs help of family members for daily activities, he also required help of other aids to sit or stand. All this time he was under go physiotherapy. We left no efforts to make him independent. But instead in reality what we saw was Rohan worsened in terms of scissoring of legs, foot deformity, poor head-neck-trunk control, wasting of muscles; he was just going downhill, deteriorating each day with his growing age. Yet, we hoped for some kind of miracle to happen and some new invention of modern science to come to our rescue.

We have tried everything allopathic, ayurvedic medicines and panchakarma as well as homeopathic medicines. We have been very fortunate that no doctor ever gave us any false hopes and always told us that this is a non-progressive incurable disease but this other way round also created an impression in our minds that our son is going to remain dependent on us for lifelong. His daily schedule now includes doing exercises in the morning, getting ready and going to office, but he needs help in all activities of daily living. We really hope nothing big but that our son should be able to manage his daily routine activities without anybody’s help and he should be able to stand and walk on his own without any aids. Somewhere in the back of our minds we feel that the therapy that we had been doing for so long hasn’t worked well for our child; else how would he deteriorate despite the ongoing therapy?

In August 2012, Dr. Mahabal a family friend suggested Dr. Rajul Vasa’s name and we travelled all the way from Nasik to see her in Mumbai. To get an appointment was really a tough thing. They asked us for no new investigations and saved us from that pinch to our pockets. After examining Rohan, first thing Dr. Vasa asked us was to remove his calipers, special shoes and abductor (divider between two legs). She explained us the fact that no doctor ever even mentioned to us that the divider between the legs stimulates the cutaneous receptors in the skin in the adductor area resulting into more and more reflex contracture, resulting into more adductor activity and leading to adduction contracture from longstanding use. We were shocked to hear that and could do nothing but regret because the divider between legs which our child actually had been using to prevent scissoring of legs, had actually induced scissoring of legs and adduction contracture!! In the beginning we doubted like any other parent would, but practically we saw that with Vasa Concept Rohan’s legs started remaining separate despite the non-use of leg separator; we then believed what a mess we had made of our child’s body and life.

In the beginning, the exercises seemed very difficult to us and it required 4 to 5 people to bring Rohan in a particular posture. Now after a period of almost 10 months, he does few exercises independently and doesn’t require more than 2 people for any given exercise. He is managing himself pretty well. We noted many changes in Rohan in such short time in not only his physical, but physiological and psychological aspects as well. Few to mention includes changes in sitting posture; without the use of the divider between the legs, he is now able to keep them separate while sitting. He had lot of dark spots and patches on skin of back and both limbs, this has reduced a lot. He used to throw his trunk backwards, which is now reduced to great extent. Because of the active postures and exercises, his calves and biceps have started developing; previously he had wasting of calf muscles. He has started eating roti with his own hands. His scoliotic spine and lumbar lordosis have improved markedly. The greatest achievement for us was when he started using his hands for after toilet washing; this was something we had never even dreamt of..! Shape of his legs and feet is changed and improved. Another big change, Rohan had dystonic hands with wrist flexion contracture; even this has reduced markedly. He had an stiff open jaw and his mouth remained wide open most of the time; now with Dr. Vasa’s therapy, his mouth remains closed and drooling has almost stopped. He now tries to even chew the food; previously he would just gulp it down. His digestion is now improved. He was habituated to vomit the food, this has reduced greatly.

As Rohan has good intellect, he sees the changes in himself and understands how the quality of his life is changing. This is giving him more positive energy and has made him optimistic to work hard towards his progress. Before joining Dr. Vasa, he had almost gone into depression; but now he has taken a U turn in his life. He is very optimistic and eager to do his exercises and he says ‘I will put my 100% for exercises’.

Thanks to Rajul Vasa Foundation serving the mankind by treating cerebral palsy and stroke patients world over; till date nobody exactly knows how to keep spasticity at bay; we have seen at the center with our eyes that Dr. Rajul Vasa can do that; in fact she is the only one to do that. This we can say after visiting “n” number of doctors in these 27 years. We do understand that it is not easy to treat the spasticity and contractures in a 27-year-old CP child. We are grateful to Dr. Vasa for agreeing to treat our child provided we put in our hard work.

Many thanks to Dr. Rajul Vasa madam.