Patients need encouragement, motivation
AT 55 years old, Latchmin Khan was doing her best to care for an elderly woman who has no husband and children; even moving in with her so as to be able to care for her better. Little did she know that the time was soon coming when she too would become entirely dependent on others.
Khan’s life completely changed earlier this year, in June, when she reached for her towel on the line but ended up falling on her back. She damaged her spine and could no longer walk.
“I couldn’t even sit up to eat; I had to come for therapy with the ambulance,” Khan, who had no previous complaints in life, recalled during an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine.
She started going for therapy at the Palm’s Rehabilitation Department where she said she has been receiving much-needed help. Thanks to the therapy she has been receiving, she can now sit up to eat and even move around in a wheelchair.
Khan has also been receiving support from her daughter-in-law and grandson. “My grandson would put me to sit up and brace me with pillows so I can sit up and eat. I couldn’t do this before,” she said.
She is not sure if she will ever be able to walk again, but with tears in her eyes, she would only say: “In God I trust. I would love to get up, stand up and walk, even if it’s just a couple of steps. I’m hoping for the best and trusting in God.”
Deputy Head of the Palms Rehabilitation Department, Kelly Coonjah believes that it is necessary for Khan and other persons living with spinal cord injuries (SCI) to be motivated by their health care providers so that it becomes easier for them to accept their new realities.
“At first, it’s very hard to get them to accept that this is their condition. But once you motivate them, they are very willing to work; very eager to become independent,” Coonjah expressed during an interview lately with the Pepperpot Magazine.
“Just basically talking to them, cheering them on during their exercises, telling them ‘well done.’ Those things would go a far way for them. Most of them are bedridden when they come here and it’s hard for them to see themselves that way when they were so functional. So a little chatting can go a far way for them,” Coonjah pointed out.
Officers within the Rehabilitation Department, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Public Health, would also show motivational videos featuring success stories of persons living with SCI.
With the entire month of September being dedicated to SCI awareness, local health officers are representing Guyana for the first time this year at an SCI Congress in Curacao. Today is the last day of the Congress.
Coonjah believes that the Congress will help to improve the treatment that is offered to persons locally. “We can get better prognosis with our patients and see more spinal cord patients functional in society,” she said.
She referred to 29-year-old Marvin Massiah, who was very independent before a motorbike accident last year. He is now another SCI patient at the facility.
Massiah collided with a car on Aubrey Barber Road and had to do a surgery shortly afterwards. Today, he cannot walk normally. “I hold on to the steps around the house and try to walk but I can only go on the road with a wheelchair,” he told this publication.
With therapy, Massiah expressed confidence that he will be able to walk again. “I was a very independent person and to be in a position where I have to depend on everyone for everything is kind of difficult for me. But I have to adapt myself. It’s a hard task but we can’t give up. You have to believe in God when it comes to these kinds of injuries.”
Another SCI patient who has been responding well to therapy is 22-year-old Marcel Arthul who in 2015 was involved in a vehicular accident.
He was a porter on a truck heading to Mahdia when the accident happened. “The vehicle turned over and I fell out. The truck reversed down and turned over,” he recalled.
Arthul said his life has changed completely since the accident but that he is grateful for the services being offered to him at the Palms. “I can’t walk, can’t feel my feet. It changed completely and it is difficult now. Almost everything I want I gotta ask for. But I come a far way now. For eight months, I couldn’t lift my head. The services here are helpful. I came here and learnt how to do things I couldn’t do before.”
Arthul is eagerly looking forward to the time he would be able to walk again. “My goal is to walk again. I want to get back into society as a normal person again. But I guess you have to say this is normal too. But it is not normal for me because this is not what I am accustomed to. Getting back normal is walking. That’s my normal.”
