Any brain injury, infectious, hypoxic or traumatic is a high risk emergency where the patient’s condition can worsen rapidly if appropriate treatment is not received on time. But with a strict treatment protocol and stem cell treatment, patients can regain some of their lost function.
Abdul-Rahman Alfa Lusiba With His Father Mahd Jamada Lusiba
Abdul-Rahman Alfa Lusiba, a healthy one year and eight months old boy, suddenly developed fever and lost his appetite. Out of concern about his growing weakness, his parents immediately visited a hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with meningitis and other complications, including loss of consciousness.
Even after the infection subsided, Abdul-Rahman was left with a marked regression in his developmental milestones, with poor self-awareness along with cognitive, sensory (hearing) and motor deficits.
In the course of wanting to help recover his child, the boy’s father, Mahd Jamada Lusiba, was advised to contact and forward the diagnostic reports of his son to the medical representatives of NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute in Mumbai. After examining the medical reports Dr. Nandini Gokulchandran, the institute’s Deputy Director and Head of Medical Services suggested Neuroregenerative Rehabilitation Therapy for ‘Post-Meningoencephalitis with Quadriplegia’ and cortical blindness detected in the child.
Dr. Nandini Gokulchandran informed the family that the treatment would require a week’s hospital stay, post which the child would have to visit the hospital, for further treatment, after every six months. During the hospital stay, Abdul-Rahman was to be thoroughly examined and assessed by the experienced therapists at the Institute, who would design the required rehabilitation plan for him, which would be followed by a Bone Marrow Aspiration, from his own hip bone, from which subsequently the mononuclear cells would be isolated. The isolated hematopoietic mononuclear cells would then be injected intrathecally (in to his spinal fluid) through a lumbar puncture.
She also added that the bone marrow transplantation would be followed by four days of intensive therapy as planned by the therapists, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, counselling and other medical treatment as required.”
Explaining the advantages of stem cell therapy, she said, “It has been seen to help facilitate repair of the nervous system as well as improve functional ability. Currently, this is not a cure for cerebral palsy/other brain injuries, but more an attempt to help repair the brain, and strengthen the neuronal connections.”
