The power of giving out love

The Center of Neurologic Restoration in Havana, obtains a 60% increase from its patients, thanks to the 7-daily hours of rehabilitation in contrast to the three weekly hours applied in Europe.

Juan Jesús Arnárez (EL PAÍS • SALUD Sábado 12 de diciembre de 2009)

A muscle that does not move, becomes atrophied, and so does the brain. That is why, with a great dedication to the patient an the 7-daily hours of rehabilitation, lost neuronal functions can be recovered and thus improve the quality of life. These advances can be obtained even in deseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer’s, admits sub-executive director Dr. Emilio Villa from the International Center of Neurologic Restoration (CIREN) in Havana. Dr. Villa has visited Spain to know about medical facilities and to exchange experiences with colleagues from Madrid, Valencia or Pampolona. “The nervous fissue is redundant. We have more than we need and we can use that reserve to help the patients with neurodegenerative disorders”, said Emilio Villa.

Families with their dear ones in wheelchairs, teraplegic, paraplegic or severely disabled, havely find motives to be hopeful when they are told their cases have no remedy ”Doctors and others toach a little about how to live. They teach disabled ones to go on living with their disease and to try to be able to incorporate himself or herself to society with the little that can be done – even thouugh wheelchairs be more sophisticated” adds Villa, responsible of Center that has not discovered gunpower – as the International Medical Community knows what to do with these patients – but our center “is the only one worldwide that applies an intensive rehabilitation system of up to seven daily hours, contrary to the one and half or two weekly hours as average in most of the world’s public hospitals” In the best of cases, including private clinics, the therapy is on a 2 hour basis, two or three times a week, depending on the type of lesion.

But, what about the results? The Cuban doctor assures that the patients treated at CIREN – more than 40000 from 83 countries since 1989 – experiment an improvement of 60% to 70% with respect to their status when they first arrived at the center. “We work with the conviction that lost functions can be recovered”