Introduction to Part Three
Creative Solutions to
Personal and Situational Needs
The human body is a marvelous system of complex
structures and processes that work in harmony to sustain and protect a
living, active person. Many disabilities that affect certain functions of
the body upset the balance which preserves a person's health and
well-being.
| Consider pain. The ability to feel
pain is an important protective mechanism of the body. In disabilities
where the sense of feeling and pain is reduced or lost in parts of the
body - such as leprosy, spinal cord injury, spina bifida, or advanced
diabetes - minor injuries happen more easily, and they run a risk of
becoming major or life-threatening problems. For example, many
deformities that come with leprosy (Hansen's disease) such as loss of
fingers, hands, and feet, are not caused by leprosy itself. They come
from secondary (and preventable) injuries and infections that happen
because of loss of feeling. (Leprosy germs attack
nerves that transmit feeling.)
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HOW PERSONS WITH LEPROSY DEVELOP
DEFORMITIES
Loss of feeling leads to burns and injuries. Lack of pain in
injured parts results in neglect and infection. In time, the bone gets
infected, and fingers or the hand can be lost. |
Children with spina bifida, who often have no feeling in their
feet, also can develop sores and bone infections similar to those seen
with leprosy. Jesús, whom you meet in Chapters
16, 26, and
45, lost a leg from such a problem, and also had severe pressure sores
on his backside.
Pressure sores and urinary infections are common and
often life-threatening problems in persons with spina bifida and
spinal cord injury. Two chapters in Part 3 (Chapters
27 and 28)
look at innovative ways of protecting against and treating pressure sores.
Chapters 25 and
26 look at techniques for avoiding and combating urinary infections.
Persons who are quadriplegic (spinal-cord injured in
the neck) usually have hands paralyzed as well as legs. In
Chapter 24, a young man tells how he made
his own device to hold a pen. In
Chapter 28, a youth learns to use
spasticity to dress.
Persons with uncontrolled movements or limited control of their hands
(or whole bodies) often have trouble with carrying things, especially
liquid food and drink. Chapter 22 shows how
a man with cerebral palsy designed a non-spill carrying tray.
Chapter 21 describes the creation of
devices for straightening the back of a baby with spina
bifida who had an extreme spinal curve. Chapter
23 looks at innovations that helped a man who had a stroke
to relearn to talk and walk.
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In sum, Part 3 looks at a range of innovations to
improve function and safeguard health, primarily for persons with
complications of injuries to the brain or spinal cord. Often the
concerned person plays a key role in the problem-solving process.
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