WPP: Improving lives of disabled children

The World Pediatric Project (WPP) concluded its Physical Therapy Mission at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on March 31, after five days of consultation and therapy. The mission, which originated in Richmond, Virginia, included its leader, physiotherapist Kim Wesdock, on her tenth mission; first-time worker, pediatric physiotherapist Lisa Babco; along with Elaine Plemmet, a pediatric specialist from St Lucia, who has joined the mission for the second year. A total of 41 children were seen. Of these, three children came from the region: two from Grenada and one from Trinidad and Tobago.

Head physiotherapist Kim Wesdock, explained that the WPP mission works closely with the Physiotherapy Department at the hospital and when they arrive, they would already have a schedule to work to. Children are seen daily: annual reassessments and new patients. “For example,” she expounded, “there is a little girl which we see who was born with very crooked bones in her lower leg. We consulted with the surgeon who comes with the Pediatric Orthopedic Mission and he advised it was a very difficult deformity to treat. With no surgery being possible before the age of six years, conservative treatment was recommended. We, therefore, did splinting and bracing.” She elaborated that with bones about a 75 per cent angle in her lower leg, the child has been receiving splinting and a special brace every year, with visible straightening of her bone resulting. “It’s actually kind of a miracle,” she said. “Every year she comes in and we do the X-rays to compare year to year. So now, the surgeon is thrilled!”

According to Eastern Caribbean Representative of the WPP Jacqueline Browne-King, the physiotherapy mission always tends to be labour intensive, where the progress of children who have been on board before are looked at to further streamline their exercises for greater effectiveness. The new children are given a total assessment of their developmental stage, then an analysis, of what they need and how best to chart their programme to benefit from the services, is conducted.

Local physical therapist Janelle Ballah and her team have been an integral part of the physiotherapy missions of the World Pediatric Project. Their job has been called a great one, despite the challenges they face through numbers. Representative Browne-King acknowledged, “They have to cater to the in-hospital patients, the out-patients, and the community, so it’s really a challenge.”

Physiotherapist Wesdock was careful to explain that, in many instances, the Physiotherapy Mission of the WPP feeds the Orthopedic Mission, so the best arrangement is for one to follow the other. Therefore, the next mission of the World Pediatric Project will be the Pediatric Orthopedic Mission, scheduled to be conducted at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital between Sunday, April 9 and Friday, April 14.