The Adeli Suit Comes to Birmingham!

The following article was in The Birmingham News on Friday, December 16:

Children's expands cerebral palsy therapy
Russian suit helps patients to strengthen muscles
Friday, December 16, 2005
ANNA VELASCO News staff writer

For a person with cerebral palsy, just sitting up or walking can be an athletic challenge. Muscles are weak, tight or spastic, making alignment of the body for proper movement difficult.
Children's Hospital has just bought six suits developed from Russian technology that help children with cerebral palsy strengthen their muscles and develop proper movement. Some even learn to walk after intensive therapy with the "Adeli Suit."
Making Strides, an Alabama charity dedicated to providing intensive therapy to children with cerebral palsy, gave Children's Hospital $15,000 Thursday to pay for the suits and for training the past two weeks to teach therapists how to use them. The gift allowed Children's Hospital to fly over a Russian doctor who specializes in use of the Adeli Suit.
The charity plans another $20,000 donation to Children's Hospital early next year to buy more suits, at $2,500 each, and to help equip another therapy site at Children's South off Interstate 459, in addition to the hospital therapy department.
Children's started intensive cerebral palsy therapy in 2004 with the help from an initial $15,000 gift from Making Strides. The hospital has provided the three-week, four-hour-daily therapy for 20 patients since then. Therapists used a suit similar to the Adeli and other types of exercises.
"We've seen kids come in not being able to walk and leave being able to," said Lisa Steed, a physical therapist at Children's.
But those sessions have been limited because of staff and equipment constraints. The training these last two weeks has increased to 12 the number of therapists trained in the intensive techniques, up from four. Children's said it hopes to give as many as 50 children next year the chance for intensive therapy including use of the Adeli suit.
Making Strides:
The suit - which hospital officials said is much better than a similar product Children's has used - was designed in Russia originally as a device to help the cosmonauts adjust to low-gravity conditions in space. In the early 1990s, it was developed as a therapy tool for children with cerebral palsy and other motor problems.
It has a halter top and shorts connected by straps and small bungee cords that can be pulled in different directions according to each child's disability. The cords also can be attached to other parts of the body to produce proper body alignment and muscle use.
"It straightens up your posture," said Sheree York, director of physical and occupational therapy at Children's Hospital. "It gives you the feeling of muscles pulling the way they should so you can move properly."
After intensive therapy with the suits, the brain trains the muscles to remember the correct way to move, said Dr. Matvey Martyanov, of Russia, where the suits are part of standard therapy for cerebral palsy patients.
Not all will be able to walk after the therapy, but all patients should develop more physical endurance and better mobility.
Jerry and Phyllis Templeton founded Making Strides after they saw the improvement their two 10-year-old daughters made in other intensive therapy programs out of state. One has since learned to walk and another has gotten much stronger, although she is mostly restricted to a wheelchair, Jerry Templeton said.
"We have never focused on walking," he said. "It's about that child reaching the best level they can."

E-mail: avelasco@bhamnews.com