Sarthak was a diagnosed case of Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and underwent open heart surgery during which he had respiratory arrest for 3 minutes, developed Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy. Later after he recovered and was found to have tightness in both upper limbs and lower limbs which is persistent. He is unable to stand and walk without support (prior to surgery was normal). MRI showed left temporo-fronto-parietal subdural haematoma with cerebral and cerebellar atrophy. Sarthak started treatment with Dr. Vasa at age 15 years.
Sarthak Kasturiwale
Sarthak Kasturiwale before Vasa Concept
Sarthak was unable to stand or walk without support. His knees almost touched each other while walking. His feet did not touch ground and he still had toe walking pattern even with his AFOs. His elbows remain bent while walking. Head circumference was smaller as compared to his age. There was scoliosis and tilting of pelvis on left side, hence he had to walk on right toes with right knee bent to adjust with the hip level of left leg. The feet were flat with no muscles at all. He joined Dr. Vasa in August 2012 at age 15 yrs.
Following are the observations made by Saarthak’s parents within a time span of less than 8 months of treatment with VASA CONCEPT.
Videos
Before - After Video
Videos - After Vasa Concept (playlist)
Progress Timeline
2012 Aug - Nov
Visible Progress
- We came with Sarthak to Dr. Vasa at age 14 on August 12th, and we asked her whether our child can be helped at the age of 14. She answered that we are dealing with the brain and brain which is a plastic organ can be moulded and reorganized at any age; it is not a kidney or a lung. Dr said Brain is an organ of action reaction and brain is a solution finder. Sarthak will respond if our actions with the brain are in right direction and the brain willact if coaxed into to find solution to prioritize its safety. We were surprised to hear all this as no doctors we met until today had provided us with such valuable knowledge and this boosted huge confidence in us to work with Sarthak for his recovery. We moved out of the negative thinking into positive thinking instantly.
- First change; though we did not do any exercises with his mouth he started showing changes in his mouth posture. We noticed that his mouth which mostlyremained open from spastic jaw muscles, started getting to close completely for longer time. Drooling also reduced.
- Dr. Vasa asked us to discontinuewith the night splints which he was advised to maintain the bent knees straight at night.They were very uncomfortable and he could not sleep well because of it. AFOs which he had been using for quite long timefor walking were also discontinued by the doctor though we spent a lot of money in making it and we thought that splint will make our son walk. Dr. Vasa told us not to force him to walk; he can move in wheelchair until his body is prepared with exercises to get up and walk by himself. We stopped making him walk and started with exercises like Dog to Cobra and Dog to Camel.
- He used to simply swallow the food and not eat any dry hard food. He always preferred very soft food that he could swallow easily. Now he eats apple and Biscuits.
- Sarthak could not hold his head straight all the time, but now he does as his trunk and head neck control has improved. Earlier he used to sit with hunch back because of the kypho-scoliotic spine.
- We see development of his biceps, triceps. Earlier there was no muscle bulk seen in his arms; neither did he have any strength to use his arms.
- His knees which were very stiff before have become more flexible now. Earlier it was very difficult task for us to straighten his knees completely. His hips were so tight that we could not make him sit in Mandi position on the floor.
- His finger grip has become stronger than before. Finger movements are good and various movements between fingers are possible now.
- His thigh muscles are also becoming strong. He is more actively moving his legs to go from dog to cobra posture.
- Now Buddha posture on ball is possible. Earlier it was very difficult to put him in cross leg posture itself. He also tries to balance his trunk on the ball. He has now overcome his fear of falling from ball while doing ball balancing exercises.
- By doing sit to stand from the ball, and bouncing on the ball and bending the trunk from standing against the ball and up from the ball his body has become more flexible.
Duck Walk
2013 Dec '12 to Mar '13
Visible Progress
- His right heel cord was very much stiff; we could not bend the foot into dorsiflexion even passively, now it is more flexible.
- The shape of his feet has changed; now they look more muscular. Previously they looked very thin, flat, deformed.
- Previously he had scoliosis, hip and pelvis contracture tilted his pelvis to curve the spine. While walking, he used to take weight on right toes with right knee bent; now there is no toe walking. There is no scoliosis either. He sits with his back straight. This change has happened simply with dog to cobra and Christ exercises saving a lot of our money for spinal surgery as orthopedic surgeon had recommended previously to us for fixing the spinal deformity.
- Hand banging, dog to cobra exercises have helped him to develop his hand muscles. The usage of his hands has improved. Previously he used to simply fiddle around with water tap or lids of bottles, he had no strength to move them or open them but now he opens the water tap in bathroom on his own.
- Previously when we used to make him stand to urinate, he was putting all his body weight on us. Now that he has developed good trunk control and his legs are getting better, he takes his body weight on his own feet.
- Previously his skin was yellowish. Now his skin has turned pinkish due to improved blood circulation.
- He can do sit-to-stand very spontaneously with very little support. Earlier we had to pull him up to stand up.
- Breathing exercise is helping him to tackle his excessive cough and cold problem.
- Now his knees look more aligned. Previously both knees were almost kissing each other upon standing and one knee looked higher than the other, they were not in the same line while he sat in the chair from tilt of pelvis and scoliotic spine. Now when standing, the hips are not in internal rotation and the knees are quite separated.
- His hips and buttocks look quite muscular now. Earlier the buttocks were almost a bony structure; there was no development of his gluteal muscles.
- His conversation is better and more logical now with me and others.
- His understanding is improving day by day. He cooperates with us and understands our problems as well. If his father is not well, he understands that and doesn’t trouble him then.
- Earlier he used to watch only Pogo channel on TV. Now he watches Animal Planet, National Geographic channels also. His curiosity to gain knowledge is increasing day by day.
- As told by Dr. Vasa, various colorful pulse seeds are mixed and Sarthak is asked to separate one at a time. He is doing slowly but fine.
- Cycling has been started from 25th March, 2013 onwards. He is improving on daily basis. Now he can press his legs firmly to move paddle. Presently, we are practicing at home only.
- The knee muscles of the both the legs are developing which is a very positive result. Earlier, we used to see only bony structure of the knees.
- We have observed so many changes within the last six months since joining Dr. Vasa that we are amazed at his progress that no therapy that we have been giving him for last 14 years could bring such noticeable change in our child. Under Dr. Vasa’s guidance and motivation, we are working hard for betterment of our child. Only Dr. Vasa insists that since it is the parents with whom the child is comfortable with and with whom the child stays all the time, only parents can work hard on child to bring improvement in him; no other external person, therapist, doctor can put in many hours of the day for your child as they have many patients to take care of therefore parents must work at home with child for several hours in terms of activity as an exercise and exercise itself.
Sarthak began to do sit to stand independently with very little support at the knees; joined us in August 2012. Previously he was only able to sit independently. Now he crawls and squats, and can do sit to stand (which is a pre-stage of stand, walk). His heel would never touch the ground before, now the calf muscles have become relaxed and the heels are almost flat on the ground.
Sarthak sit to stand
Sarthak Kasturiwale History
Sarthak was born on 27 October 1998. He is a full term normal delivery baby. My child had all appropriate milestones achieved except that he was suffering from ventricular septal defect (a heart condition) for which he was operated on 05/07/2000. The surgery (VSD closure with pulmonary volvotomy) led to complications in my child resulting into hypoxic ischemic insult to the brain along with significant cerebral and cerebellar atrophy. This led to loss of vision, audibility, speech, sitting, standing etc. The doctors declared that the injury is fatal and cannot be cured by any surgery or medicine. We were told to pray and start rehabilitation programs.
We tried to help Sarthak with many different kind of therapies. Here are some of the treatments that we made him undergo:
We started giving him acupressure with machine and to our surprise he uttered word “baba” after 20 days and then slowly he started talking.
Then we gave him Electrocrystal therapy on daily basis for one month.
He consumed ayurvedic syrup “Ojaswin” for six months.
We continued his physiotherapy under eight different physiotherapists at different times.
My wife took great efforts in getting done sitting exercises and one fine day, he could sit.
As per physiotherapists, we used splints, calipers etc and tried in all possible ways to seek guidance for therapy.
Nothing really seemed to be working on our child’s spasticity as such; it went on worsening with his age. We learnt from our experiences that still there are limitation in this field of physiotherapy for expert opinions and guidance. Everybody keeps trying but nobody gives any result as such, while the child continues to keep growing with age making it difficult for the parents to manage the child with each passing day. Physiotherapists take 45 minutes to 1 hour session; out of that hardly 20-25 minutes session is when child is cooperating. Most therapies are simply traditional and monotonous stretching and strengthening of the muscles. I am very sorry to say that this has become a commercial field right from ortho equipments to physiotherapy to schoolings to medicines….and unfortunately there is no alternative left with the parents but to pass time trying different ortho equipments and simply spending hours together outside the cabins of all the renowned doctors, therapists from whom we expect to bring changes in our child without much gain not to mention the huge monetary losses.
In doing this, like all other parents we wasted our so many most critical years at early stage after injury when right guidance, right therapies play a great role.
Suddenly one day, we came across one article in Loksatta “Paris Sparsha” means ‘golden touch’ and we got very much impatient to contact Dr. Rajul Vasa by simply reading the article. We thought somebody in the form of God has come to our rescue who will let us free from this directionless and commercial vicious cycle in the market. After meeting Dr. Rajul Vasa, we really felt happy, safe, and in the right hands.
Therapy under Dr. Rajul Vasa:
We brought Sarthak to Dr. Vasa at the age of 14. We were told by many doctors that it is difficult to reduce contractures of your child with passive stretching in physiotherapy; you will need surgical stretching. We were afraid of any surgery as our 2-year-old Sarthak had suffered brain injury during the surgery. When we brought Sarthak to Dr. Vasa we were surprised to see no negative reaction of any verbal or nonverbal form from Dr. Vasa. I particularly wish to mention here that whenever we take our child to the doctors and therapists, they put the parents in further depression suggesting us to accept the disability of our child because I suppose they have no solution to our child’s problems. They only tell us to carry on with the treatment so that the child does not deteriorate further but we actually have been witnessing that despite regular treatments Sarthak continued to deteriorate with development of contractures and stiffness and tightness. He became more and more dependent from all the stiffness.
At the center, the most interesting thing is that we are told to interact with one another. This helps us to share our experiences and help and educate each other. It indicates very much transparency. No fee is charged and on the contrary care is taken to utilize time to the fullest extent under keen observation and supervision. The video shooting of day to day home exercises is asked on weekly basis to review progress and useful instructions are given in next session to correct exercise if required. The spirit and enthusiasm seen in Dr. Rajul Vasa is very much commendable. No doctor ever thinks and plans treatment according to the need of a particular child and that to closely watching home video of exercises on Friday / Saturday before seeing the child on Sunday!! This is Dr. Vasa.
Sarthak before joining Dr. Vasa:
He used to wear splints in both the legs.
His right leg was very much stiff. Both hips and knees had flexion contracture with scoliotic spine and tilted pelvis.
He could sit but had hunched back and could not stand and walk.
He was not doing much activity at home.
We were making him walk without any other exercises to prepare for walking.
Positive Results with Vasa Concept:
We were asked in the very first session to stop using splints and to make him walk with splints and two people dragging him almost. Honestly, we were hesitant to immediately stop making him walk or stop wearing splints, but when we felt after two sessions that exercises told by Dr. Vasa are giving results then we totally discontinued use of splints and started using wheelchair.
There was lot of stiffness in his right leg. But because of exercises like cobra, jumping on trampoline and balancing on ball, his stiffness has reduced.
Other exercises like hand banging on ball, squat walking, sand exercise are really working on full body development, muscle building etc.
Very important thing is that we are motivated by Dr. Vasa’s concept of working with child’s brain and body. We have complete faith in Dr. Vasa as we have experienced the result and we have seen the results in other children with our eyes. So, with full confidence, we are putting all our efforts to practice the exercises given by Dr. Vasa.
Dr. Vasa gives more stress on home activities for brain development and we have started working on it. Sarthak is also enjoying it.
We were making Sarthak practice walking as told by our previous therapists, but we discontinued it after joining Dr. Vasa’s therapy as we understood importance of other pre-walking exercises first. Besides, we were noticing increasing stiffness in Sarthak with walking.
Dr. Vasa educates all parents from time to time and explains the importance of exercises. This also boosts our confidence level and gives us positive energy to work more and more on our child.
Now within 6 months of therapy with Dr. Vasa, the stiffness in his body has reduced to a greater extent, his arm and thigh muscles have developed, shoulder has broadened, his finger gripping has improved, and hands have become strong and he can lift and play with various objects around. He can now open the lid of a bottle, open the water tap in the bathroom, which he could never do previously. He can sit better now with his trunk straight; he doesn’t sit anymore with a scoliotic C-curve of spine. He does sit-to-stand from chair, jumping on trampoline very well. Previously there was scissoring of leg when we made him stand which has reduced now; his adductor tightness has reduced a great deal. There are improvements in intellectual level also. His knees look aligned, feet are no more looking flat and crooked. His body is becoming more muscular. Heel tightness has reduced. Now his foot is flat on the floor when he is standing; no more standing and walking on toes. We parents feel very proud that we could bring so many changes in our child under Dr. Vasa’s guidance. We parents are ready to do any amount of hard work provided we get results. We are very thankful to Dr. Rajul Vasa for bringing so many changes in my child within such short time.
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