MIOT Chennai helps a 10-year-old paraplegic boy to become active once again
Posted on: 04/Jan/2020 9:31:43 AM
Ever since he fell down in February 2019, life has not been easy for the 10-year-old boy Eric of Tuvalu (a small island in the Pacific Ocean).
It is amazing to mention here that Eric had never-say-no attitude and this had surprised many doctors at MIOT Chennai. The fall he had in February 2019 made him bedridden because he became paraplegic. The doctors at MIOT have done a fabulous job and Eric is now on the extensive road to recovery.
Important information is the paralysis of the lower half of the body suffered by Eric due to spinal cord injury has created further health complications like bladder and bowel incontinence.
Eric travelled 10,000 km from his native place to reach MIOT in Chennai and he was examined by many spine surgeons and neuro specialists at MIOT. A fracture in D5 of the vertebral column with spinal cord compression was revealed by the MRI scans. This fracture had caused signal interruptions from the brain to the lower part of his body.
Dr Shankar Balakrishnan, interventional neurologist, MIOT, explained about how a decision to implant a neuroprosthetic bridge, a treatment called STIMO, was taken by the neuroscience board. There are 3 stages of treatment in this STIMO and these are epidural electrical implantation, neuromodulation and weight suspended gait training.
He threw light on how below the site on the injury, a small chip with 16 electrodes were surgically placed in the spinal cord. He added that the chip was connected to a chargeable battery placed in the lower back region under the skin.
By epidural stimulation process, the battery sends electrical signals to awaken the dormant spinal cord issues. It must be noted that in the second stage Electromyography is used to activate muscles. Here, neuro specialist and neuromodulation specialists played their roles to perfection. Finally, Eric had a systematic and intensive physiotherapy.
The good news is Eric is now able to walk on parallel bars and his legs could make walking like cycling movements. The doctors are hopeful that Eric would get complete movement in another year and half. God bless Eric!!
