nath@sybil.cs.buffalo.edu (Satyajit Nath) (08/09/90)
Index Number: 9606 This posting is for a person who does not have access to the net (she lives in India). Any replies to this posting may be made to me and I will forward them to her. ============================================================================= This 21 year old girl has congenital "spina bifida". This affliction has resulted in her left leg being underdeveloped - the length is about two-thirds the length of her healthy right leg and the thickness is about half. Due to this, she suffers from a lot of pain while walking. In addition, she has difficulty in maintaining bladder control. In her infancy and early childhood she was taken to several doctors to see if the problem could be rectified. The doctors suggested a surgical procedure for replacing the crushed spinal disc(s) with artificial ones. However, they cautioned that the chance of causing damage to the trunk nerves serving the leg was very high -- a 60% chance of damage was predicted which could lead to paralysis of that leg. The fear that things could go from bad to worse prevented her parents from agreeing to the surgical procedure. The fear right now is that continued stress to the damaged discs could also injure the nerves around it and cause paralyis to her lower parts. We would therefore like to see this problem corrected if possible. If any of you have any pointers to research or similar cases that have been tackled successfully, I'd appreciate it if you could send me e-mail about it. Many thanks in advance, Sincerely, - Satyajit Nath -- :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: nath@sybil.cs.buffalo.edu (716) 636-3197 :: :: Department of Computer Science, 226 Bell Hall, SUNYAB, Amherst, NY 14260 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::