NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute Gifts A New Life &Functional Independence To Two Extreme Patient Cases Of Spinal Cord Injury

NeuroGen Helps Virali Modi and Hutaib Adib To Come Back To Life & Stand On Their Own Feet

Mumbai, July 22, 2015 : Rehabilitation of the spinal cord injured individuals is far one of the most challenging fields for the rehabilitation experts. Till today, there is very little to claim as a panacea for the spinal cord injury or regeneration of the damaged spinal cord. However the researchers all over the world find great hope in stem cell therapy (SCT) and it has been shown that SCT accelerates Rehabilitation’s role to bring independence in spinal cord injury patients. Hence SCT when coupled with extensive rehabilitation gives better results than only physiotherapy. This above statement can be best explained with two such medical cases of Paraplegia and Quadriplegia.

Dr Alok Sharma Professor & Head of Neurosurgery, LTMG Hospital & LTM Medical College, Sion Mumbai and Director NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute said “Spinal Cord Injury affects the person’s functional independence and has a major impact on quality of life, sense of self worth and consequential social participation. Whilst it is generally expected that the degree of functional independence achievable is dependent on a person’s spinal cord injury level, a person’s neurological level should not be viewed as strictly predictive but rather as indicative of potential function.”

The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that runs down the middle of your back. It carries signals back and forth between your body and your brain. Spinal cord injury (SCI) occurs when there is any damage to the spinal cord that blocks communication between the brain and the body. Spinal Cord injury occurs after road traffic accidents, railway accidents, falls from heights and sports injuries. It affects 25 out of every 10 lakh people. The consequences of spinal cord injury, whether it is paraplegia or quadriplegia, are severe and crippling.

After a spinal cord injury, a person’s sensory, motor and reflex messages are affected and may not be able to get past the damage in the spinal cord. In general, the higher on the spinal cord the injury occurs, the more dysfunction the person will experience.

Dr Nandini Gokulchandran, Deputy Director and Head Medical Services, NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute said“It has been a long standing belief that patients with paraplegia and quadriplegia following spinal cord injury (SCI) will remain wheelchair bound or bedridden for the rest of their lives. The medical community has always felt devoid of a tool to make these patients walk again. But, now with the emerging era of stem cell therapy we can make a difference in the quality of life of these patients and help them get back to their feet once again.”

Hutaib Adib, a 28 year old Merchant Navy paraplegia patient and resident of Navi Mumbai used to be a passionate sports bike rider, and working as a Second officer in merchant navy since Feb 2006. On June 27, 2013, he met with a major accident while riding back home after spending fun time with his friends on Palm Beach Road, Navi Mumbai where his bike slipped and banged a bus stand pole. He was riding at 80-100kmph and reached 0kmph within fraction of seconds. Claims to it as a ‘Dark Night’ his bike crashed, helmet was in pieces and Hutaib broke his spine. It was 11:30 at night so not many people were on that road; they picked him up randomly, threw him inside a cab and admitted to a nearby hospital. The spinal cord was injured at D5-D6 Level, 2 vertebrae were shattered and due to mishandling of his spine (lack of EMS) by the helping hands bone fragments entered in the cord, spinal compression happened along with breakage of ribs and internal bleeding. Technically an accident patient especially a spinal cord injury patient is supposed to be operated immediately but only because of non-availability of doctors and operation theaters he was operated after 3 days, which ultimately lead the injury to grow. He was declared as paraplegic with no movement, no sensation in his lower body. He could not feel his limbs, could not stand/sit, no bladder or bowel control and just felt that his lower body is nonexistent. When the doctors or therapists tried to make him stand he used to faint within 5 seconds. He was out for various treatments like acupressure, acupuncture, homeopathy, massage, medications and extensive physiotherapy for more than a year that is till July 2014 and was able to achieve only some tingling sensations. He had lost all hopes to stand on his feet until he came to know about stem cell therapy. Hutaib underwent Stem cell therapy on 29th Sept 2014 and since then he is on his way in the improvement ladder. Now the speed lover has gained speed in his fight against dependency. Since then every week he can see/feel some or the other improvements. His passion for cooking and baking made him launch Hutaib’s Chocolate which is already doing extremely well.

The second patient case is also extremely interesting and motivating. This is the story of a young 23 year old American Indian girl Virali Modi who was declared clinically dead thrice in US. She is a known case of Transverse Mellitus. Starting with simple cold, cough and high fever, Virali Modi lost her entire sensation, mobility, everything. The sufferings of her health started in 2006 and during the four years time frame, she went into COMA, was declared clinically dead thrice and not just that doctors had planned to disconnect the ventilators as well.

Dr. Alok Sharma finally diagnosed Virali as suffering from chronic Transverse Myelitis. She underwent the first stem cell therapy in 2010. After the stem cell therapy, she gained back all the sensations, some mobility and strength in muscles. Her upper body improved tremendously. After experiencing sustained improvements she underwent second time Stem Cell Therapy in 2013. This time she started walking with calipers and support, gained more strength, became totally independent in terms of everyday living activities and could travel alone on wheelchair.

This boosted her self confidence and so she took first step towards making a bright career. She was a content writer at a leading Social Awareness blog. Along with this she went for many photo shoots for various awareness campaigns.

The full of life wheelchair bound young girl was crowned MISS WHEELCHAIR INDIA – 1st runner up for the year 2014. The desire to become fully mobile, to dance, to travel etc made Virali to undergo Stem Cell Therapy for the third time in 2014. ‘’After the third stem cell therapy, I can comfortably walk with a walker, climb stairs, I feel more strength in my lower body, upper body is completely normal, I have gained bowel and bladder control, I go to gym for 2-3hours everyday’’ says Virali.

Virali is very passionate about writing, modeling and acting. Currently she is a lead content writer in an online lifestyle website. Along with this she does a lot of modeling photo shoots and has given auditions for upcoming commercial movies.

Three times clinically dead declared girl is not just surviving but also standing on her own feet and all credit goes to the Stem Cell Therapy and rehabilitation. She also won the Miss Wheelchair Runner Up Title and has also given auditions for a forthcoming movie. She is now settled in India with her parents as she is undergoing treatment still.

Dr Alok Sharma further said “At NeuroGen, the patients are not only given stem cell therapy but also put on an extensive rehabilitation program following stem cell therapy and are taught bed mobility techniques like rolling, getting up from lying down position as well as transfer techniques like transfer from bed to wheel chair and vice versa, wheelchair to car and so on.”

Dr. Nandini Gokulchandran further said ‘’ Stem Cell Therapy done at NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute is a very simple and safe procedure. Stem are taken from patient’s own bone marrow with the help of one needle and are injected back in their Spinal Fluid after processing. Since they are taken from the patient’s own body there is no rejection, no side effects, hence making SCT a completely safe procedure.’’

Based out of Nerul, Navi Mumbai, NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute, India’s first and only institute that offers not only just Stem Cell Therapy but also Rehabilitation as well. This 11-storeyed building is a super speciality hospital with 51beds and special rehabilitation therapy centres. Neurogen BSI has been set up to help patients suffering from incurable neurological disorders, get relief from their symptoms and physical disabilities by the use of stem cell therapy in a safe and effective way. NeuroGen BSI offers stem cell therapy and holistic rehabilitation for Neurological Disorders like Autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, brain stroke, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury, head injury, cerebellar ataxia, dementia, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis and neuropsychiatric disorders. Till date, the organization has already successfully treated 3000 patients from over 33 countries.

NeuroGen Brain & Spine Institute, unique international centre of excellence for neurological disorders has been set up by Dr Alok Sharma, Professor & Head of Neurosurgery, LTMG Hospital & LTM Medical College, Sion, Mumbai. Dr. Alok Sharma is a world renowned Neurosurgeon, Neuroscientist and Professor who brings with him extensive surgical expertise & experience in the areas of Neurosurgery, Neuroscience and Stem cells.

Dr Alok Sharma further concluded saying “For all those millions of patients who had told by us earlier that nothing can be done medically for your illness, we can now say to you with reasonable confidence that with the availability of stem cell therapy and combined with neurorehabilitation, Achhe Din Aane Wale Hain! “.