Afiya's Journey: Overcoming Cerebral Palsy with Determination and Therapy 🌟

9-year-old Afiya was born normally on 12th October 2012 as the first child of her parents. However, at 9 months old, her parents noticed she couldn’t control her neck or roll over in bed. Initially, they thought it was normal weakness.

At 13 months, Afiya had a high fever (105°F) and was admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for a few days at Vatsalya Hospital. Her growth was delayed, and doctors diagnosed her with global developmental delay.

Her family was worried and unsure about how to care for her but gradually adapted and began therapies at Jain Hospital, Anand Vihar. Due to financial difficulties, therapy was discontinued there. Later, they enrolled her in a special school for occupational therapy, speech therapy, and special education. Afiya achieved milestones like sitting, standing, and holding large objects, but her parents still had concerns about her development.

In 2019, when Afiya was 7, her mother enrolled her in Sarthak’s Early Intervention Program after learning about it through mobilization efforts. A detailed assessment showed muscle tightness on the right side, restricted hand movement, poor muscle strength and gait, coordination issues, excessive drooling, and difficulty holding fine objects such as pencils and cups. She needed multidisciplinary interventions.

At Sarthak, occupational therapy helped Afiya gain standing ability, improve gait with Ankle-Foot Orthosis, hand function, and reduce muscle tightness. She can now do active range of motion exercises, functional activities like kneeling and sit-to-stand, and walk independently. Her gripping skills improved and she can hold glasses, cups, and balls, and perform activities like using therapy putty and stacking cups.

Speech therapy improved her clarity, sentence narration, receptive and expressive language, vocabulary, chewing, and stopped her drooling.

Special education helped her write alphabets, numbers, and varnmala. She can identify fruits, vegetables, colors, birds, and flowers.

Today, Afiya is an independent girl who needs just a little care and lots of love to thrive.