Rehabilitation vital for children with ‘untreatable’ eye diseases

State-of-the-art integrated paediatric vision treatment, rehabilitation facility launched at Narayana Nethralaya

The parents of nine-month-old Sweety, who was born with cortical visual impairment (CVI), had lost all hope of their baby getting better functional abilities. The baby girl from Bihar, who is being treated and rehabilitated since the last two months for CVI at Narayana Nethralaya, is showing improvement.

CVI is a temporary or permanent visual impairment caused by the disturbance of the posterior visual pathways and/or the occipital lobes of the brain. The degree of vision impairment can range from severe visual impairment to total blindness.

There is hope of better living for several children suffering from various ‘untreatable’ eye diseases such as retinal dystrophies and other developmental anomalies if they are rehabilitated in a holistic manner. These children need visual rehabilitation, which is the process of improving functional ability despite visual loss.

Doctors at Narayana Nethralaya, who have seen and rehabilitated over 3,000 children from all over the State in the last two years, have now set up a state-of-the-art integrated paediatric vision treatment and rehabilitation initiative for such children.

The project called ‘Buds to Blossoms’ was inaugurated on Friday. “Efforts are on to involve like-minded stakeholders in realising the project,” said K. Bhujang Shetty, chairman and MD of the hospital.

Addressing presspersons, Dr. Shetty said that while hundreds of children undergo surgeries for treatable eye diseases, there are about three lakh children suffering from “untreatable” eye diseases who need integrated rehabilitation in India.

“We have been successful in improving the visual function in about 3,000 such children, and thus improving the quality of life through our integrated rehabilitation approach. We charge only those who can afford and provide the service free of cost to others. We hope to expand this facility to a standalone rehabilitation centre, which will exclusively cater to the needs of such children,” he said.

Paediatric retinal surgeon Anand Vinekar, who also heads the project, said under the initiative, the hospital has been providing vision rehabilitation, physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapy, mobility and cognitive therapy along with psychological and neurology support, under one roof.

To raise funds for the centre, the hospital has launched ‘Soul senses’, a musical charity event. The inaugural edition was held on Friday and the ‘artists’ are ophthalmologists from the hospital.