It was so nice to meet and talk to the parents about #cerebralpalsy and #developmentaldelay in #children at the #puthur #brc in #palakkad yesterday
Stress was on the need for #earlyintervention and adherence to #treatment especially #physiotherapy. The challenges parents face while continuing care is an eyeopener everytime I hear them out.
As in most diseases, treatment challenges in #cerebralpalsy is more to do with #social, #familial and #accessibility issues than actual lack of desire.
Most parents are willing to face the #financial challenges if it means the child will improve. Many are disillusioned with existing treatment methods and fall out because of slow progress, lack of motivation from professionals around and also pure financial pressure. Many have siblings who are healthy and would like to divert their limited resources to that child. This is such an unfortunate choice , but many parents make it.
Such talks and interaction are a wonderful opportunity to break the ice, motivate and also clear their apprehensions on the treatment of cerebral palsy.
A big thanks to Puthur BRC for organising this meeting. More to follow 🙂
Attaching below a few pictures and also a short video which the BRC officials had shared.
Mr. Shivakumar BPC, Puthur BRC Parents were enthusiastic and participated wellA compilation of photos of the day
Excited to address the #Calicut #Orthopaedic Club this Friday and speak to stalwarts, teachers and trainees on #CerebralPalsy and the #orthopaedic treatment possibilities.
I will speak on the need for early detection, treatment and also about the newly released hip surveillance guidelines.
The trainees and general orthopaedic surgeons need to understand the importance of early referral and the benefits of early treatment.
In India with its exploding healthcare facilities and young population, we need to be aware, equipped and future ready when it comes to cerebral Palsy care.
Medical Camp for Pediatric Neurology and Pediatric Orthopaedic Disorders
We are restarting our yearly free combined #PediatricNeurology and #PediatricOrthopaedic #MedicalCamp for #CerebralPalsy, #autism, #orthopedic #Diseases in #children this May at #Palakkad, #Kerala.
The children can consult a Pediatric Neurologist Dr. Velmurugan and Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. Easwar TR and also get counselling from Psychologist Mr. Toji Joseph and Physiotherapy consult from Mr. Biju Bhasker
The Medical camp is being organised as usual by the wonderful people at #Sevabharathi , #palakkad and also #LifeCarePhysiotherapyClinic, Palakkad Registration is free : 9495888879, 6238256073, 8891294916
Do share widely so that the news reaches the beneficiaries. Thank you Dr. Easwar TR Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
Medical Camp for Pediatric Neurology and Pediatric Orthopaedic Disorders
This is my #NFT #Art to raise awareness on #Disability caused by #CerebralPalsy .
Importance of detecting it early and early intervention is stressed. Quite often we find that children are not referred early and treated. This results in very bad deformities that are difficult to mend.
This is part of the #ArztForACause effort by doctors to improve disease awareness among public via 🎨#Art #paintings #nftart https://t.co/OzZUu9FJCh
Cerebral Palsy is such a drastic turn of fortune for any family. The poorer the family, the more challenging. With her back to the closed door, symbolising all the lost life oppurtunities, a mother steadfastly leads her child along the well lit path of medical care with darkness of either side.
This tale repeats with so many children I see in my clinic. It is mind wrenching. Promise of quick cure lures any number of parents from that narrow path to dark streets of quackery and extorsion rackets who promise magical cures.
This is my tribute to so many parents who lead their child along the narrow lit path
Mother Leading a Cerebral Palsy Child
Even when treatment of cerebral palsy is widely available, it is not uncommon to see severe deformities due to improper or delayed referral to a treating centre, lack of awareness of simply neglect. Quite often patients live in far flung villages with poor access to healthcare or broken families compounding the difficulties.
Advanced deformity of the hand in Cerebral Palsy
I have seen that through these storms invariably the mother stands and guides the child unwavering.
Cerebral Palsy is a tough problem in Paediatric Orthopaedics. The children have spasm, contracture and variety of coordination issues , balancing issues, seizures and other symptoms like tremor, dystonia which makes treatment quite a challenge. This is more so in the younger children where we would like to have a tool that is non invasive and still helps relieve spasm.
Tone Inhibiting casts offer an invaluable tool to control spasm in a very young child that you would want to avoid surgery.
The dosage of surgery in cerebral palsy has to carefully titrated as muscle are inherently weak and over-lengthening can be disastrous.
We try to avoid overzealous initial surgery and but time when possible with plaster casting to reduce muscle spasm.
Tone Inhibiting Casts are a vanishing tool these days in medical professionals’ armamentarium but find it a great tool. In India with cost of Botox injections to relieve being very high and in the class of patients I treat many of who are from poorest strata this is a godsend.
Cast application is done under general anaesthesia so that adequate muscle relaxation is obtained and we take great care for a close , bespoke type fit with good pressure relief over bony prominences. Prevention of pressure sores is very important and technique of cast application – the fit, padding, tightness, joint position, strength of cast all play a role in the final result.
We keep child on physiotherapy all through the time child is on cast to keep up muscle strength and also aid stretching. A cast usually is kept for 6 weeks. Sometimes in severe spasm we have staged application of casts to progressively apply it lesser flexion of joints as the muscle tone decreases.
Medicine is tough. Treatment slow, arduous. I feel for those who wait patiently in crowded poorly appointed waiting rooms, corridors in India’s hospital for the poor. They spend their days here by the loved ones
On #WorldCPDay this year, amid the pandemic, we’ve managed to launch a new rehabilitation facility in association with Karunya MVRC, Palakkad, Kerala, India ( @Karunyamvrc on Twitter )
Kerala State loves Sports, and specially loves Football. We married care for children with Cerebral Palsy and Sports, to setup a one of a kind Adaptive Sports Environment where children would be trained with Physiotherapist’s support by well known Sports Coaches.
Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon’s service is also available to assess these children and triage then into various categories from where they can be rehabilitated.
Our Cerebral Palsy Adaptive Sports Team
Ms. Valarmathi- Physiotherapist
Mrs. Valarmathi- Senior Special Educator
Mr. Ravindran – Retd SI and Kerala, Police state and national team Football coach
Ms. Dhanya Ravi- Change Maker, mentor, PwD, National Award winner in the Role Model Category under Empowerment of People with Disability
Mr. Anudarsan – Director , Karunya Medical and Vocational Rehabilitation Center
Adaptive Sports is a special type of Sports training given to children with special needs by adapting the requirements of sports to the specific difficulty the child faces.
This would often involve some change in rules, some Assistive device support, fall prevention and a completely tailored coaching system to enable the child to play effectively.
Why Adaptive Sports ?
Well known rehabilitation method for Cerebral Palsy is Physiotherapy. Often times children find repeated therapy sessions boring, painful at times and many fall out of care. We’ve seen this happen over the years.
Also, there are several limitations to traditional physiotherapy approach when given as a single rehabilitation modality.
Sports training allows much the same benefits of improved strength, coordination and improvement in function that we get out of Physiotherapy but also improves the quality of Physiotherapy session as the child is a willing participant because of the interest in sports.
What are the special challenges in setting up Adaptive Sports in India ?
Coaching for Adaptive Sports is a patient art and the skill is much in dearth. The Sports coach has to tailor his or her expectation to the unique medical issues of the child and training method is customised accordingly.
Often these children have profound muscle weakness, spasticity ( unusual tightness of the muscles ), contracture, ataxia ( issues with body balance ) and inability to selectively more a body part. These result in delayed improvement a ability to perform in Sports activity. These children need care and support of their team to get ahead.
The coach has to be understanding of all these aspects and train the child.
What have we launched in Palakkad ?
Details about our effort to train children in Adaptive Sports here :
Great program on #rare #genetic #disease at #iccons covering #neurogenetic disorders and it’s genetic basis.
Dr. Anitha PhD, Convenor of the CME on Rare Genetic Diseases speaking at the InaugurationHandbook of Genetics by Dr. Anitha – book release
My talk of Cerebral Palsy and Genetic trends
I will be speaking on #cerebralpalsy and genetic trends this noon. Cerebral Palsy , while not under rare diseases does have some very interesting new genetic trends emerging which promises positivity in the care of these children.
Future Skeletal Dysplasia Clinic
I will also be interacting with doyens in field of Genetics in India and Paediatricians with experience in rare diseases to setup a rare Disease clinic at ICCONS that caters to Skeletal Dysplasia like Achondroplasia, Pseudo-Achondroplasia, Hypochondroplasia, SpondyloEpiphyseal Dysplasia etc..
Many of these disease are rare with rare mutations. Setting up a clinic with many specialists is very important to cater to this group comprehensively.
Today we take baby steps in this directions.
CME Programme for Rare Genetic Diseases
Dr. Anitha’s Book on Handbook of Medical Genetics
Dr. Anitha with her excellent resource book Handbook of Medical Genetics
Extremely happy to announce that we will be inaugurating our new comprehensive Spine & Pediatric Ortho Therapy centre at Palakkad.
Please find the invitation attached.
The rehab centre is fully equipped for Spine rehab, Pediatric Orthopedic rehabilitation with special focus of Pediatric Sports Injuries, Cerebral Palsy and Spine disorders.
Please find attached below the invitation for the event tomorrow, 04/01/2020 along with the services available there.
Malayalam Invitation Note and Brochures
Paediatric Orthopedic and Spine Clinic Announcement
Disability Day programmes we are organising at #ICCONS, #Shoranur, #Kerala
We are covering all levels and types of disabilities with medical camps, parent awareness and other community programmes designed to raise awareness, promote inclusiveness and improve accessibility to services.
This year we have an elaborate programme with Pediatric Orthopedic disability, Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Hearing Disability, Genetic Disorders all included in the programme. Please find details below and do share among your groups.
Programme
Attaching the brochure below this with programme details.
International Day for Persons of Disability 2019 International Day for Persons of Disability 2019
Time and Place
Institute for Communicative and Cognitive Neurosciences , Shoranur , Palakkad
October 6th we will join the world at ICCONS, Shoranur , Kerala in celebrating #WorldCerebralPalsy day.
What we are lining up this month ..
We are starting the programme by joining the #GoGree4CP movement to dedicate ourselves to the care of #CerebralPalsy affect children.
We will be lighting up the entire building in green for the entire month and put prominent placards, posters and banners in local language of Malayalam and English to spread awareness about CerebralPalsy among general public.
Lined up after that is our free medical camps in both Paediatric Oethopaedics and Paediatric Neurology and Developmental Paediatrics along with cultural activities, parents education seminars, assistive technology programmes, research on Cerebral Palsy, Counselling for parents and other events.
We have dotted the events across this October to keep the awareness and dedication alive.
Attaching below is a poster and a banner of our medical camp and GoGreen4CP initiative.
Cerebral Palsy is such a difficult disease to handle and treat for the health care professionals.
The treatment process needs to take the parents and family members along so that these children get optimal care. It’s important to reinforce on the parents and lift their morale throughout the course of long and arduous treatment.
I routinely arrange seminars and medical camps and arrange public events in association with groups serving these children to help them and keep caregiver morale high. It’s a fight, a relentless fight against Cerebral Palsy.
It never ceases to amaze and move me that the mother , however humble or rich , illiterate or well educated, they may be cares for the child and stays with child through thick and thin.
Wacom One CTL and MyPaint on Linux works like it’s a match made in heaven.
My Digital Art on a mother caring for her child with Cerebral Palsy – Drawn using Wacom One CTL 472 and MyPaint Open Source Software.
This painting is part of the #ArztForACause fundraiser for children with Cerebral Palsy , Autism and Movement Disorders
She literally is the guiding light of the treatment, showing the way and proving that she’s the true representative of the all giving , ever loving Divine Mother
A Mother leading and lighting the way of care for her child with Cerebral Palsy – Digital #Art
We at the Palakkad Orthopaedic Club are organising a free medical camp on August 04th, 2019 to mark the celebrations of National Bone and Joint Day in 2019. We will be holding the medical camp at IMA Hall, Palakkad, Kerala on August 4th from 9.30 am – 02.00pm.
Dr. Tajan, President Palakkad Orthopaedic Club and Dr. V G Ponnirajan, Secretary, Palakkad Orthopaedic Club have been hard at work along with the other members of the local orthopaedic fraternity to organise this event.
We will be participating in this medical camp and are expecting a large turnout for the event. Brochures, Posters and Press release has been done and event has been publicised in the social media well so that maximum number of the deserving public can be reached.
Those seen at the camp and found eligible, free surgeries can be conducted at District Hospital and other local private hospital after screening. This ensures that the benefits of the event truly go to the deserving.
Please find below the poster for the event.
Bone and Joint Day Celebrations among Orthopaedic Surgeons, Palakkad, Kerala. We are organising a free medical camp
So happy that we’ve had a very successful #PediatricOrthopedic and #CerebralPalsy #Medical camp today at #Palakkad, #Kerala. This is one of a kind medical camp, parent education drive and cross speciality clinic that we’ve been hosting at Palakkad since 2014.
This is the 6th year of my setting up Paediatric Orthopaedic clinic here at Palakkad Cooperative Hospital, Kerala and patient awareness of the problem of Cerebral Palsy, ClubFoot has increased tremendously over these years.
Sevabharathi volunteers were as usual wonderful and committed. None of this would have been possible if not for the commitment of Biju Bhasker and his team of LifeCare Physiotherapy Centre at Palakkad, Kerala. He has been the main organising force behind this over the years.
Today we had a Pediatric Neurologist Dr. Velmurugan and Pediatric Gastroenterologist Dr. Jaganandan join us for the camp. Both specialists are from Coimbatore. It was so nice of them to take time out and join our efforts.
With God’s grace we’ve been able to consistently raise the standard and tune the camp to make it more cross specialist so that patients can consult multiple specialists in the same visit. We try with every camp to make it better. I was discussing with Udayasankar CN of Sevabharathi, Palakkad that next camp should be much better in many ways.
I could identify some children who will require surgical procedure, plaster casts, Botox injections which could be funded, if approved, via the planned free surgery program at Palakkad for the #Bone and #Joint Day of #IndianOrthopaedicAssociation in the first week of August.
Heel Bone Calcaneal Osteomyelitis in New Born Child
Pavlik Harness for DDH hip needs to be fitted properly
Application of Hip Spica under anesthesia in DDH
As planned we will be conducting the free #CerebralPalsy and #PaediatricOrthopaedic medical camp this month on 21st at Palakkad, Kerala. It will be held at Life Care Physiotherapy Clinic, Fort Maidan, Palak kar, Kerala.I will be examining children with orthopedic problems, limb deformities, birth deformities like #ClubFoot, Cerebral Palsy and Spine disorders like #Scoliosis.
Cerebral Palsy
Like last time this camp will be conducted in association with #SevaBharathi who will provide logistic support. A big thanks the people and volunteers of SevaBharathi who’ve been associated with this since last 3 years.The medical camp this time is further expanded to include Paediatric Neurologist, Paediatric Gastroenterologist who will also be participating.Attaching the poster for the event below.Please do share and spread the word.Thank you.Dr. Easwar TR.Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
This April I’d be starting my #Clubfoot clinic as part of the Pediatric Orthopedic Clinic at Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama Charitable Hospital, #Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
This hospital caters to poor patients in the city and a cost effective Clubfoot Clinic will add to the existing services run here.
Last month I had started my Paediatric Orthopaedic Clinic there officially and we plan to step up the services for Cerebral Palsy, Pediatric Sports Injuries and Pediatric Limb Deformities in coming months as more ancillary services are commissioned here.
Clubfoot Clinic at Thiruvanathapuram,Kerala
Pediatric Orthopedic & Cerebral Palsy Clinic at Thiruvanathapuram,Kerala
Do pass the news around to people who may benefit. Our main focus would be to keep it state of the art and cost effective.
Overtime we will add features to the clinic and ancillary services . Watch this space !!
After many years of work we finally have a #PediatricNeurologist ( Dr.Velmurugan, Hope Neuro Centre , Coimbatore ) (geared towards #DevelopmentalNeurology), Occupational Therapists, #Pediatrician (Dr. Lakshmi, Coimbatore), #Psychiatrist(Dr. Sajal), #Psychologist joining our team to treat Developmental Neurological issues in Children and Cerebral Palsy.
This is the first day of two day free medical camp. First day is dedicated to the neurological issues in children like #Autism, #Seizure disorders and second day for #PediatricOrthopedic Diseases, Limb Deformities like #ClubFoot and #CerebralPalsy.
This was in organised in association with #Sevabharathi who has been most kind in donating money, arranging volunteers etc.. The premises itself is a Lifecare Physiotherapy clinic of Biju Bhasker at #Palakkad, #Kerala.
Most kind have been Sevabharathi, it’s volunteers and Dr. Sreeram Sankar without whom this wouldn’t be possible. When me and Mr.Biju approached them with the idea 2 years ago they had a kind heart to go ahead and help us with much needed sponsorship and man power.
Watch this space. The next event would be bigger and better !!
Please do share and spread the word.Thank you.Dr. Easwar TR.Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
Dr. Easwar T.R 