“This is a miracle”

Lawrence was assessed  in January last year in Karambi, one of the outreaches that we had recently started. By then, Lawrence had a floppy neck, could not sit or even stand. He spent most of the time lying on the ground. He had never even tried sitting upright on the floor and was too big for his grandmother to often carry. Her priority then was to get a wheelchair so that she could manage to move him around.

Upon examination, I noticed that this boy had lots of potential and declined to recommend a wheelchair for him. After observing him maintaining sitting on his own for up to 2 minutes during this first session, I recall his grandmother exclaiming, “Ekyi-nikyeeriswekerya!” meaning  “This is a miracle!” This was because she had never seen him sit upright in the 12 years she had been looking after him.

Because his grandmother is old and unable to do exercises, I arranged home visits to engage other family members at home to help during the absence of a therapist.

The good news is that they took the advice, and a year later, Lawrence is now able to sit on his own, crawl and stand along objects. We are now planning to build parallel bars at home to help him with standing and walking practice.

Lawrence’s family are very happy with this progress and can’t stop appreciating what KCDC has done to improve his life and the family at large. His grandmother says she is no longer worried about leaving him at home because she knows he can protect himself from bad weather or even walk in the neighbourhood in case he gets hungry.

Written by Mumbere David, Physiotherapist.

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