CASE REPORTS
 

Petri

A 25 year old taxidriver from Sweden, who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in the summer of 98. He was in a coma for four months. He got a serious brain lesion, causing his right side to paralyze and he also lost his ability to speak. At the beginning doctors did not give him any hope of recovery at all. After waking up from the coma Petri has done everything possible to make himself better. He started Coordination Dynamic Therapy in Spain in January 2001

After a month of therapy his speech is clearer and his balance has improved. When training his walking we focus at this point to his knees because he can mainly walk by keeping his knees overstretched. Before starting Coordination Dynamic Therapy Petri mainly used a wheelchair and a rollator. Before coming to our therapy he abandoned his wheelchair, and started to walk mainly with his rollator. After a month of Coordination Dynamic Therapy he is now mainly walking with his sticks and short distances inside without any helping aids at all.

His situation after 5 months of Coordination Dynamic Therapy: His mother´s comment when she saw him for the first time after his five-month long rehab: "Thank you for giving me my son back".

The balance of Petri has further improved. He can walk long distances also outdoors without sticks. His way of walking has also impoved, so that he doesn´t overstretch his knees anymore when he´s walking. His selfconfidence also has come back, and he can speak three languages very clearly.

Also his physical appearance has changed back to how he was before his accident. Petri is continuing training at home under the supervision of Dr. Schalow. Last update: summer -01, Petri is training running on his lawn.

Mika

A 36 year old patient had an accident during riding a bicycle and suffered a spinal cord lesion sub C4/C5 and partly sub C2 due to hemorrhage. The brain stem seemed to be partly also lesioned by the bleeding, because the patient had an unusually strong spasticity in arms and legs (in spite of a spasmolytic having been administered), and his breathing was impaired.

Two years after the accident Coordination Dynamic Therapy was started.

Three months of Coordination Dynamic Therapy (4 to 6 hours per day) resulted in a reduction of the spasmolytic drug from a very high dosis (120 mg Baclofen per day) to zero.

After 5 months of little progress (apart from the withdrawal of the spasmolytic), the patient´s movement functions suddenly made a step forward. The patient can now turn 4500 times per day by himself in the sitting position, while before the sudden change he only managed 1000 turns. At the beginning of the therapy he only managed to perform a few turns by himself in the lying position. The sitting position became possible because of the reduction of pain and hypersensitivity in the sacral range, especially the sacral skin. Probably, the pain subsided because of a better processing of the afferent input in the neuronal networks as a result of the improvement of the CNS organization. The hands have still to be fixed. With the hands not fixed with bandages and held to the handles, the therapist can feel the improvement of the movement state because approximately after 10 turns the patient manages to hold the handles partly himself. Of course, the patient always tries to help volitionally to perform the movement.

In this case, the learning-therapy was superior to pharmacotherapy, and the side effect was an increased fitness.

Now he is training at home under the supervision of Dr. Schalow, still without any medication. He now can do, one year after starting the Coordination Dynamic Therapy, up to 10 000 turnings per day on his own, and he has also been able to start creeping exercises. (Situation 9.3.01)

Vesa

A 35 year old man suffering from a rare neurologic disease. The disease is progressive and is causing spasticity. Before starting Coordination Dynamic Therapy he had big difficulties in walking and would have soon had to start using a wheelchair.

Vesa was in one of the clinics in the spring of year 2000. After that he has been training with instructions of Dr. Schalow at home. His training has been succesful; he has been able to return to work at a construction site.

In his own words: the rehabilitation is pretty hard, but it is a nice feeling to realize that you are able to walk in places where you haven't been able to walk for 5 years.

Simo

A 25 year old professional hockey player, who was seriously injured in a diving accident in the summer of 99. He got a spinal cord lesion in the neck at the level of C4/C5 causing tetraplegia / quadriplegia.

The Coordination Dynamic Therapy was started 7 months after the injury. In the beginning of the rehabilitation his hands had to be tied to the therapy devices, because the volitional functioning of the hands was poor. His feet were almost totally paralyzed and spastic, he could only move 3 toes in his left foot as presented in a program on finnish TV2 in March 2000.

5 months after starting the Coordination Dynamic Therapy his hand functions, and his controlling of his trunk, got so much better, that he could manage his daily life independently, with almost no help at all. He has regained so much strenght back to his legs, that he can do uprighting training from standing postion almost all the way down to a chair and then back up again several times. And when he is standing against the wallbars, he can do it without overstretching his knees. He could also run, assisted by therapists, on a treadmill at 3-4 km/h.

In January 2001 Simo started a new 4 month long period of Coordination Dynamic Therapy in our clinic in Spain. After 2 weeks of training he could also run, assisted by therapists, on a treadmill at speeds over 6 km/h.

In the middle of March he could move his right leg all by himself on the treadmill. In the summer of 2001 Simo continued his rehabilitation for additionally three months.
In June -01 Simo could move both his legs unassisted on the treadmill at a speed of 4,5 km/h.

Jere

A 6 year old young man who was paralyzed to the legs in a car crash when he was 2 years old. The Coordination Dynamic Therapy was initiated four years after his accident. After 6 weeks of therapy the strength of his legs has improved. He can stand by himself for 5 minutes.

After 8 weeks of rehabilitation the power in his legs have further improved. At the beginning Jere could do 33 turnings against the resistance of 25 Newton on one of our training devices. After 8 weeks 1855 turnings.

After 12 weeks of Coordination Dynamic Therapy he could do over 5000 turnings without getting tired. So instead we now started to measure his walking times with sticks on a given distance.

Jere's rehabilitation is continuing...

Latest update:
After 6 months of Coordination Dynamic Therapy Jere is now mainly walking with sticks and continuing training at home under the supervision of Dr. Schalow.

Sami

A 27 year old man who got a severe brain lesion in a car crash in 1997. The Coordination Dynamic Therapy was started in May 2000. In the beginning his walking was very difficult due to balance problems. He was walking with his legs spread wide in a backwards leaning position. His speach was slow and unclear.

After the first 3 months long period of Coordination Dynamic Therapy Sami was training at home with our instructions.

He then came to our clinic in Spain for 2 months of further rehabilitation. His balance has improved very much, for an outsider it is very difficult to notice anything wrong in his walking. He can walk in stairs without grabbing the rail. His speech is much clearer, and also his concentration has improved so much that he plans to stop his pension and return to work.

His rehabilitation is continuing at home under the supervision of Dr. Schalow.

Margaret

A 65 year old retired health service professional with osteoporosis.

After falling down she got a compression fracture in one vertebrae in her back. Due to this she produced a bilateral paresis in her legs.

In the beginning of her rehab. she walked very much leaning on her rollator. Both her ancles were powerless. Also she suffered from severe pain in the lesionarea.

After her rehab. she regained power to her ancles : 75% power back to her left ancle and 100% to her right ancle.

Now Margaret can walk without the rollator and sticks, but she uses them sometimes as a procausion to avoid further accidents. In her own words : When my cousin saw me for the first time after my rehab. She got tears in her eyes, when she saw how well I was again.

It can be mentioned, that in the Tampere University hospital where she was very much
investigated they did not give her any information or hope about rehab. possibilities.

Olli

A 78 year old man who has atrophy in the cerebellum, leading to that his legs were weak. Also balance problems. His wife was getting tired to take care of him and they planned that he would have to go to retirement home. His walking was difficult with 2 inch long steps and using a rollator.

After 3 months of Coordination Dynamic Therapy he could walk without the rollator, could walk in stairs and even jog short distances. He is still living at home.

Katja

A 29 year old artist with a spastic tetraplegia / quadriplegia (Cerebral Palsy) due to complications at her birth.

Before starting the Coordination Dynamic Therapy she was walking with a rollator in a forward bent manner. Her speech was unclear.

Her 3 months long Coordination Dynamic Therapy started in May 2000. During the therapy her walking and speech improved essentially. Now she is walking in a more upright position, still with a rollator. Her speech is more clear.

She continues her rehabilitation at home with the help of her incouraging husband.

CP boy, 3 years

Spastic Tetraplegia / Quadriplegia. The moving of especially the arms and legs considerably limited, also has problems with the vision.

After two months of Coordination Dynamic Therapy the flexion of the arms is better and the spasms have reduced and he has started to use his hands. he can fixate his eyes better and his drooling has reduced considerably.

CP boy, 6 years

Avoided tendon cutting surgery because the spasticity of his legs reduced.

Magazine articles

NOTE: In some of these case reports we have changed the name of the patient to protect his / her identity.

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