Jana, pictured below, in November of 1987.  At this time, her doctors had pronounced her “blind for life”.  The pictures in this post are scanned from old copies, so please excuse the quality.  However, this amazing case history is still worth sharing.

At this stage, her right hand was often in a flexor spasticity posture, but with coaxing, she could, very slowly, pull her neck collar off when she got to school.

Her left arm was flaccid and not used at all.   She is shown using the Merry Muscles Therapeutic Exerciser with the pelvic support seat in these photos.   The pelvic support is used for exercises in a supported standing position.

As of early spring in 1988, Jana could follow moving objects with her eyes and indicate which item she wanted when she was given a choice.  These improvements have been made even though she was MORE THAN TWO YEARS Post-Trauma, severe head injury, when she was introduced to the Therapeutic Merry Muscles!!

June 1989–Right arm now has full ROM, some active use of left hand too.  Loves to swing!  When her teacher transfers her weight to her feet, Jana will try to make herself swing although her legs are “paralyzed”.  In these photos, Jana is using the Merry Muscles Therapeutic Exerciser with the bucket seat, which is a padded flat seat which cradles the hips and thighs.

She is learning to feed herself too.

Jana has enough eye-hand co-ordination to reach out and pull communication cubes off a form board to choose what she wants to do or to eat first, etc.

These pictures were taken in June 1989.  The larger photo at the bottom shows Jana choosing the cube which means “watch TV” rather than a large piece of chocolate bar, or the cube for “play”.