If it was a complete body paralysis that had threatened Dr. Mini Moll, for Dr. Reshmi Pramod it was visual impairment.

But the debilitating disabilities did not bog them down as their sheer will power to live their life had prodded them on. As the world observes the International Day for Persons with Disabilities on Thursday, their stories are of grit in the challenging field of medicine.

Dr. Mini was struck by the cranium-vertebral junction anomaly that resulted in total paralysis of the body when she was just a few months into her first year of MBBS in 1983. From then on it was struggle between life and death. With three major multiple surgeries failing to revive her condition, even the doctors had sort of given up on another surgery. But she wanted to have a final shot at it .

“It was probably my desire to get back to my life that got the doctors to attempt the fourth surgery, said Dr. Mini. All this happened at the Christian Medical College, Vellore.

And it was the much-known rehabilitation centre attached to CMC that nursed her back to life. Behind all the surgery and rehabilitation was her family, strong as a rock. Her maternal uncle M. M. Joseph and his family and her extended family were like her own father, mother and siblings.

Dr. Mini Moll and her three siblings were looked after by their uncle as they had lost their parents early. And each step she took after the surgery was like a gift for her uncle too, she added.

As she rejoined for MBBS after four years, she had to have a permanent special neck collar support and another support for walking. But she was not done with the last of her surgeries. A fall managed to disturb the surgical correction that she was again at the surgeon’s table twice, this time in Pune.

Now, as a radiologist at the Ernakulam General Hospital for the last 15 years, Dr. Mini Moll is doing what she had always wanted to do, to serve the poor patients.

Dr. Reshmi had just begun her Ayurveda practice when she was struck by mascular degeneration in 2004. Taking consultations up to Shankara Netralaya, Dr. Reshmi though knew about her condition, was trying to come to terms with it. She was going blind and it was a depressing period when she could not think of a future.

At a time when she was prepared to even change her profession to lead a life of dignity, she took to online consultation in Ayurveda. It gave her some confidence as she got good feedback. It was at such a time that she got an offer to join Bolgaty Palace hotel to run their Ayurvedic spa connected to medical tourism. From Kozhikode, the family shifted to Kochi for good in 2006.

“This exposure gave me the confidence to practice my profession”, she said. But I wanted to work for children with disabilities like autism, learning disability, cerebral palsy and mental retardation, for which there continues to be a major gap in awareness towards an integrated approach in indigenous treatments.

While continuing her association for medical tourism that brings her dough, Dr. Reshmi had taken up various therapies in association with Kottakkal Ayurveda Medical College that help train children with disabilities and lessen their burden of dependence.

It was again family support that took her forward. Her husband, Advocate Pramod, her parents and others in the family helped her gain her profession back. Jeevaniyam is a charitable trust at Elamkulam, Cheruparambath Road that Dr. Reshmi runs for children with various disabilities.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/debility-cannot-stymie-their-i...