I am seeking advice/info for 9 year old Phuc on behalf of his family in HCMC. Essentially we are looking for MOBILTY or PHYSIO EQUIPMENT suppliers in HCMC or addresses /contacts who can assist the family. The parents Hanh and Hai are not well off, but are NOT looking for charity.
Phuc was born blind and has very limited mobility + occasional epilepsy. He mostly sits and swings his arms or rocks back and forth, but makes attempts to rise/ stand, but due to brain motor disfunction he has little co-ordination, or leg strength. He has some hand co-ordination (clapping) and partial grasp strength, but cannot talk. His parents have to lift and carry him everywhere and feed and toilet him, but he is quite heavy for his age, so we are looking to help his parents move him around (wheelchair?) and perhaps physio equipment or economical physio assistance to promote his body/leg co-ordination.
His parents are loving, but are at wits end regarding the future as Phuc gets older and too heavy to lift or carry.
Thank you for reading this note. Any helpful pointers would be gratefully recieved.
Seeking equipment assistance for blind + disabled Vietnamese child
zwetschgen
It is good that you help out the poor in Vietnam. We always need more people like you.
Concerning physio therapy, you can go to
Trung tâm chỉnh hình và phục hồi chức năng (center of physical rehabilitation)
70 Bà Huyện Thanh Quan, phường 7, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Phone:+84 39325884
I have posted about them earlier
https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=181479
They are very cheap since they are government owned. Go in the afternoon since they are quite crowded in the morning.
They can surely point you where to find wheelchairs.
Does Phuc have CP? He would need a specially designed wheelchair for CP kids that has the following features: an adjustable headrest, safety belts, and a stick in the middle of the seat. (Check this link to see what I'm talking about http://www.vatgia.com/5257/1107590/xe-l … bjhb.html. They also have addresses of suppliers there.)
It's very important that the wheelchair is well designed so that he can sit in a correct position to avoid pain, and also to be able to learn coordination exercises later. Best to have a qualified therapist to show his parents how to use the chair.
I'm not knowledgeable about the quality of HCMC Physical Rehab center, so I can't judge. But I've been told by American-trained therapists who have experience working in other public hospitals that the state of physical therapy is not that great. Many Vietnamese therapists didn't have solid training and they're teaching rote exercises to patients that are too hard or not effective.
The center I quoted earlier is definitely not well-equipped nor well-trained, but they are cheap and you can go there and get started with weekly basic to intermediate exercises. If you want more advanced training/treatment, Cho Ray hospital is a much better place with better equipment, but they are more expensive.
To everyone, thank you for your tips and advice/links etc, they are most gratefully received,... we will follow up these in the next days while are briefly in HCMC as well as pass these and any future info/advice on to Hanh and Hai. Thank you once again.
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