Half a day at the International Cen-ter of Neurological Restoration (CIREN), located in the Cuban capital, has been enough for Alejandro. This loving child smiles happily while running his hands through his defectologist’s back, as she symbolically asked him for a massage. He traveled from Venezuela to seek treatment, and you can tell at a glance the favorable change.
As reborn and pleased souls, several children conversed with visitors at the defectology ward. Vivian showed his movement ability, Ernesto his skill in the Personal Computer and Ana laughed uninhibited like an actress be-fore the camera.
Hansel also smiled along with his mom while the nurse applied the non-invasive electrical brain stimulation. The same evening, the specialist in physical therapy, sat on the gym mat, hugged little Josué and with her hands she guided his head movements aimed at finding the appropriate posture. Gabriela pedaled quickly following her therapist’s instructions, and Hansel carefully listened to his speech therapist.
Luisa, 27, will return home soon. She is from the Dominican Republic’s capital city and “will come back, God and CIREN willing,” said her mother Car-men. The effects on her daughter of an acute pontine stroke in her brain-stem —back in 2015— made her come to this Center, where she talks about her experience: “We have therapy in my country, but not as intensive as the one you have here. Some people suggested CIREN to me. So I searched on the Internet. I contacted them and we came last year.”
“My daughter responded quite well to treatment. Since we arrived here, she began to swallow better. Her brain stem strengthened. Her head stopped staggering, and she started to do a series of stuff thanks to the one-and-a-half, two-hour daily therapy.
She recovered pretty well. That is why we came back this year. We know that therapists, nurses, physicians, everyone here really care for her. All of them are attentive and work together. That is why we are here “running this long race,” but we know good things are ahead of us".
Appreciated benefits
The neurological restoration program provide lots of benefits to those who need this kind of medical care at CIREN.
Here, patients find the answers to their questions from accurate assessments carried out by multidisciplinary teams that diagnose and set the pro-grams to follow for the neurological rehabilitation, which plays an important role and is simultaneously the hallmark of the institution.
In this regard, Dr. Raúl Macías González, head of the CIREN Research Center and founder of the Institution, confirmed everything is the result of an “established comprehensive pro-gram where people are seen by different specialists in double sessions.”
Meanwhile, someone cares for the proper distribution of the physical load and works together with a multidisciplinary team composed of physical rehabilitation doctors, physical therapists, and language and manual ability rehabilitation therapists.
That is the way an intense training is carried out. Its effectiveness to restore functions of the central nervous system has been proven. In the words of Macías González, “repeatability of therapeutic actions is paramount to restore functions and we have implemented it. We put into practice methods and do research into new proposals.”
The leading team of the treatment process is made up of a neurologist, clinical specialists, psychologists and nurses; not to mention the rehabilitation therapists of the different specialties offered by the Center. It certainly makes the Institution excels, as the possibility of having highly-qualified human resources and the facilities to do intense hours of physical exercises is unique.
Four clinics treat the different conditions or negative effects of illness on people’s health, including one dedicated to child neurology. Likewise, people may have access to neurosurgery services and physiotherapy, neurophysiology treatments, as well as studies and treatment for chronic pain with the confidence that CIREN works on the premise of multiplying love and restore hope.
Taken from Destino Salud.