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Helping children with ICP

In this field the Fund helps the patients of G. I. Turner Children’s Research and Development Orthopedic Institute located in the town of Pushkin.

Dr. Valerii V. Umnov (Ph.D. in medicine) is the research supervisor.

Infantile cerebral paralysis is a multi-faceted and serious disease.

Every family wants to have a healthy child. All parents want their children to be strong, smart and beautiful, so they could find a worthy place in society. But in some children’s bodies certain painful changes of muscle tone appear after birth along with a range of other symptoms, which later leave a lasting mark on the whole life of the child and subsequently of him as adult, as well as on the life of his or her parents.
In the 1890-s, the famous Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud had given a common name to these symptoms, the name of infantile cerebral paralysis, although actually this is not about the paralysis itself, but about the impairment of motion coordination that appears either in prenatal or postnatal period of baby’s development or as a result of birth trauma. Often the fetus already has such impairment. Infection, antibodies’ influence, rhesus blood factor conflict or hypoxia may serve as a reason for such impairment. Speech disorders are observed in the majority of children with cerebral paralysis, and this makes it difficult for them to contact their parents and peers. Severe, so-called generalized forms of infantile cerebral paralysis, when movement of limbs, speech and sometimes hearing of the child are impaired, lead to profound physical disability. Infantile cerebral paralysis is not a progressive disorder, but it can cause complications in the form of contractures and various deformities. Strictly speaking, the infantile cerebral paralysis is not a disease; it is rather a state that makes normal development very difficult for the child. The Charity Fund “Hope for Mercy” provides financial assistance in the form of partial or complete payment for rehabilitation. Only integrated approach to ICP patient rehabilitation can make a substantial contribution to the treatment of this neurological disorder. It is aimed at rehabilitation of motor functions, coordination improvement, and development of cognitive functions (such as attention, memory, speech, handwriting, counting). It also improves social adaptation of patients in the surrounding world. Such a combination of high-tech surgeries and original methods for motor rehabilitation allows obtaining maximum effect from the treatment. Parents and relatives of children with ICP ask us for help, and we, in our turn, appeal to you with a request to help such children.

Neurosurgery

Our fund works in collaboration with Neurosurgery Department of Children’s City Hospital #1. The head of Neurosurgery Department at CCH #1 is Alexander S. Iowa. Currently he is also the head of children’s neurology and neurosurgery department at the I.I.Mechnikov North-West State Medicine University, the head of research and practice laboratory “Minimally invasive technologies in neurosurgery and neurology” at NWSMU. He is also a member of the board of Russia’s Neurosurgeons’ Association, a member of scientific council on neurosurgery of the Ministry for Healthcare of the Russian Federation and Academy of Medical Science of the Russian Federation, a member of the European and World Associations of Neurosurgeons. He is a laureate of the first National Award “Best doctors of Russia” and the author of a new method for diagnosing anatomical intracranial changes named “Transcranial ultrasonography”. Besides, Alexander S. Iowa is a professor, author of seven inventions, author of over 200 publications, including monograph “Ultrasonoghraphy in neuropediatry (new possibilities and prospects)”. He has been the head of neurosurgical department of CCH # 1 since 1999. Annually he makes over 200 surgeries at the hospital.  His main professional interests lie in the fields of minimally invasive neurosurgery, neuroendoscopy, neurosurgery of newborns and early diagnostics of disorders that need neurosurgical solution. Neurosurgery is a branch of surgery dealing with issues of surgical treatment of nervous system. Modern neurosurgery provides wide range of treatment possibilities with minimal level of risk. Patients with congenital defects of central nervous system represent a separate group. Our fund provides charity support in the form of purchasing magnetically controlled bypass systems (which cost 85 000 – 90 000 rubles) and OXY-6 000 oxygen concentrator (a device for oxygen supply), which costs 90 000 rubles.