On November 25, 2006, Anna walked independently for the first time in her life--at the age of four and a half years. That day was her mother's birthday and Anna brought her the best present ever!
Anna was born in Cyprus on February 16, 2002, in an emergency caesarean section. Throughout the pregnancy her mother had had a small belly, but every time she asked about the baby’s condition the doctor told her that everything was normal. It appears that mother had problems during the last months of the pregnancy that caused a chronic asphyxia and delay in the baby’s growth, but the doctors did not spot the problem.
At the beginning Anna was very quiet; she did not move much or cry. Slowly she started to eat better, move more, look around, and smile a bit. Within six months she grew to a weight of 5.2 kg, a length of 62 cm high, and 37.2 cm in head circumference.At about six months of age, Anna was diagnosed with infantile spasms. She was admitted to the neurology department of Makarios Hospital for eight days. After one week of taking Vigabatrin (Sabril), the spasms stopped and since then she had no other seizures. After two months on the drug, her EEG was normal.
The neurologist at Makarios Hospital told us (her parents) that she had a good chance of becoming independent; however, she might have learning problems, at the least. Her complete diagnosis was: global psychomotor delay, intrauterine growth retardation, perinatal asphyxia, hypotonic, microcephaly, sensory-neural hearing deficit, and strabismus.At the age of five months Anna began physiotherapy in Cyprus.
After one year of therapy Anna had made very little progress. Confronted with this situation, we (her parents) realized that it was vital to find other help for our child, since at the age of 18 months Anna was still in a vegetating state. She was only able to breath with difficulty, she was immobile, could not chew her food, had profound hearing loss and vision problems (strabismus), and she could hardly cry or make any sounds.
As we started to look abroad, we learned about The Institutes and were impressed with their complex program, curricula, and achievements. What made them quite unique was that they covered all areas of child development.We first approached The Institutes in early 2003 by procuring the book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child by Glenn Doman, the founder. After reading the book and studying the programs and techniques described, we started to work with Anna.
In June 2003, we attended the five-day course with the above-mentioned name, in Philadelphia. During the course we realized that The Institutes was offering a complex program that could help our child. We took advantage of an opening in the Aspirant Program and enrolled, receiving an appointment for Anna’s first visit to The Institutes in late September 2003.
After the staff studied her history and evaluated Anna, she was given the followingfunctional diagnosis: a profound, diffuse, bilateral, midbrain and cortical brain injury. Based on this diagnosis we were given the first Intensive Treatment Program for Anna. The program was structured on three main directions: physiological, physical, and intellectual. Since the beginning of the treatment up till the present we performed about 26 programs and techniques with Anna.
We had to provide more than 20 volunteers to help us pattern Anna twice daily and a housemaid/nurse to help us with the daily program and the housekeeping.After almost three years of working with Anna she achieved victories in crawling, creeping, hearing, reading, understanding and health. She has become a lovely, friendly and sociable girl who has started to show her character and preferences.
All the above victories of Anna’s progress may appear as miracles. For those who know the reality, these are just the results of our hard work, as parents, and the knowledge given to us by The Institutes. We are determined to continue the program with Anna and pursue her further progress towards wellness.
by Anna's parents
