Lap 1 ----------8 minutes 37 seconds
Lap 2-----------4minutes 25 seconds
Lap 3-----------3 minutes 29 seconds
Lap 4----------3 minutes 54 seconds
This is no Olympic record, but the times Yatish took to
complete the circuit at his school gym in his Gait walker. To imagine that
Yatish would be able to reach this stage was unthinkable even a couple of years
back. I could only dream about it.
Once we returned from Boston we were told by the doctors
that Yatish may never be able to walk and seeing his condition then, we almost
believed it. But somewhere deep within we kept our dreams alive. Yatish was
about 3 years old and I was visiting my sister in Mumbai. Yatish did not have
head control and his extension pattern made it difficult to carry him. My
sister presented Yatish with his first stroller. We used it mostly at home and
since it was light and compact we could use it often to give us some hands free
time. This was his first taste of freedom. He could look at the world in a new
way and was not lying down all the time. He used it till he was almost 6 years
old. Subsequently we got him couple of more strollers, since they were meant
for normal children; he found it extremely difficult to sit in them for long
hours.
We made several attempts to get a proper wheelchair,
considering that there were no local manufacturers we had to import from USA.
The cost of the wheelchair would typically be in the range of 4000-5000 USD,
however the problem was that it attracted 150% customs duty which was
ridiculous. A specialised wheelchair would almost cost us 7 lakhs INR albeit without
service support, which we could at the most use for 2-3 years. (I am told that
this customs duty has now been removed, hurray!). We got a few chairs
fabricated locally but they were not really road worthy.
Amidst all this he had a few surgeries to decrease his
spasticity and the rehabilitation was aimed to get his mobility. While his
spasticity definitely decreased, there was nothing to show in terms of
mobility. We had even fixed up parallel bars at home in anticipation that,
Yatish would start walking after the surgeries, but it was not to be.
All our attempts at making him mobile seemed futile, until
we moved to Australia. Firstly he got a proper special needs stroller, which
proved to be so liberating simply because we could move around with the
knowledge that Yatish’s posture was not compromised. Yatish showed great
interest in bikes, just to make him happy we got him a second hand bike. He
loved to sit on it, even though he could not really ride it. We came across a not for profit organisation which makes modified
bikes for special children and they made a special bike for Yatish. His joy
knew no bounds; he rode the bike as if he ad done so all his life.
There was a little boy in Yatish’s class who had started
using electric wheelchair and Yatish was fascinated by it. One day when I had
gone to his school to pick him up, he showed me the electric wheelchair and
said he too wanted one. I did not know what to say to him, I was not sure if he
was ready and moreover they cost a lot. As if God heard my dilemma, some kind
soul donated an electric wheelchair.
From then on all his teachers took upon themselves to teach Yatish to
manoeuvre the electric wheelchair and he did not disappoint. He is learning to
negotiate the obstacles and continues to improve by the day.
Meanwhile he
practises his walking in his gait walker and standing in his prone standing
frame.
