Coimbatore :
S Krishnakumar, 31, was pursuing his third year engineering at National Institute of Technology in Trichy in 2005 when he suddenly found himself bed ridden. He and his family did not realise that he had a tumour in his spinal chord, and weeks of neglect led to it suffering permanent damage.

Five years later, in 2010, that he was operated in Hosmat Hospital, but his lifestyle did not improve. Today, the man has a job and moves around independently in a wheelchair.

As many as 256 patients, like Krishnakumar, suffering from spine injuries have been rehabilitated in the city-based Ganga Spine Injury and Rehabilitation Centre in its very first year. This is only the third centre in the country, the other two being in New Delhi and Christian Medical College, Vellore, that specializes in rehabilitating spine injury patients and the largest in many ways.

“Spine injuries are the worst to suffer during an accident because it leaves you dependent for the rest of your life, and it paralyses the entire family,” said the centre’s director Dr S Rajasekaran at the centre’s annual day event on Monday evening.

“At least three people are required to lift them on and off the bed, move them and take care of them,” he said.

“Our centre aims at making them as independent as possible and take care of their needs from morning till night themselves, so that the other family members can go to work,” he added.

However, for patients who have suffered spine and neck injuries even sitting upright on a wheelchair, using their hands or getting off a bed requires weeks of physiotherapy. “For 10 years I was bed-ridden and would be lifted only to a chair. I never moved around or used a wheelchair because my body had no balance and my legs were like rods,” he said.

“It took me four months of treatment to learn how to transfer myself from a bed to a wheelchair myself and use a toilet,” he added.

Doctors say the 33-bedded hospital’s treatment goes anywhere between two to three months since it is a slow procedure. The treatments which costs around Rs 5 lakh includes seven to eight hours of intensive physiotherapy a day. “We, however, treat one patient free a month and give a concession of more than four lakh for every patient with the help of donors and benefactors,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / by Pratiksha Ramkumar, TNN / January 11th, 2016