Innovative medical treatment helps Glenys eat again

 

ONE of the most frustrating things for journalists when it comes to PR people, can be the over-use of a word like 'innovative' or 'pioneering'.

That's why it's good to report on a genuine first, especially when it means really making a difference to someone's life.

We're currently working with speech and language therapist Sumathi Sinnappan to publicise the way she has been able to help Glenys Watkins, a retired teacher.

Sumathi says that work could be the start of a medical advance in the UK, capable of helping millions of people and saving the NHS millions of pounds.

She's promoting a new treatment, called Vital Stim therapy, which helps people who have lost the ability to swallow to eat again.

The disorder is common in people who have suffered brain disease or brain injury and effects nearly two million people in the UK and costs many millions of pounds to the NHS.

Glenys, (pictured with Sumathi) says her life has been transformed.

The treatment has made a wonderful difference after she suffered a serious brain injury in a fall down stairs at home. She was the first patient in the UK to benefit from the therapy.

The technique treats a loss of swallowing function, called dysphagia, which is common in brain conditions including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, cerebral palsy and brain injury. It uses small electrical pulses to stimulate the swallowing muscles, retraining them to swallow.

The treatment is not currently available to NHS patients but has been provided as a standard treatment for the disorder in the US for more than 10 years.

Ms Sinnappan, pictured left, is now calling for it to be studied further so it can be provided under the NHS.

Her campaign is backed by the NHS doctor who was involved in Glenys' treatment - who said her recovery had been “remarkable”.

Bob Rafal, consultant neurologist for the North Wales brain injury service, called for the treatment to be provided where other remedies had failed while further studies were carried out into its effectiveness.

Glenys, who lives near Rhyl, in North Wales, is the first patient to be treated with Vital Stim therapy in the UK. She said that as a result of the treatment she had “got her life back again” as she can now eat and drink independently, instead of being fed through a nasal gastric tube.

Glenys’ condition was transformed after just two weeks of Vital Stim therapy treatment, which followed 11-and-a-half months of conventional care.

The former history and special needs teacher, who faced being fed through a tube for the rest of her life, is now able to enjoy her favourite foods like spaghetti Bolognese and chips as well as cake and biscuits after regaining her ability to swallow.

“It’s transformed my life, even saved my life,” said Glenys.

“It’s brought my life back again, I feel normal again, I don’t go out a lot but now I can go out for a meal, eat and drink in company, and it’s made family life so much better.”

The married mother-of-one suffered a severe brain injury after falling down the stairs at her home in Dyserth, Denbighshire, in September 2006. She underwent a life-saving operation, which was followed by three weeks in intensive care and a further six weeks on a ward at the Walton centre for neurology and neurosurgery in Liverpool.

She was unconscious for a week following the accident and medics fitted a tube through her nose to her stomach to feed her with texture modified food.

After being discharged from hospital she spent six months at the St Asaph stroke rehabilitation centre in North Wales before returning home in June 2007, but she still could not swallow. Doctors had advised that she be fitted with a tube in her abdomen to transfer food directly to her stomach, a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy or PEG.

She began Vital Stim treatment in August 2007. After just 17 one-hour sessions, given over ten days, she was able to eat and drink normally and began to respond more positively to her physiotherapy treatment. She is pictured right with her husband John enjoying her meal times again.

Vital Stim therapy is a form of neuro-muscular electrical stimulus, where small electronic pads are placed on the skin which pass a small current that stimulates the swallowing muscles to retrain them to swallow again. It is non-invasive and causes no pain to the patient.

The same form of treatment is commonly used in physiotherapy to repair damaged muscles in other parts of the body. Vital Stim therapy is the first time this technique has been applied to the swallowing muscles to regain a patient’s swallowing function.

Sumathi Sinnappan, who lives in Wildwood, Stafford, was the first speech and language therapist to provide Vital Stim therapy in the UK. She is an approved provider of the treatment and can support other therapists to provide the treatment.

She works as a private speech and language therapy consultant, practising at The Gateway practice in Wildwood, as well as a speech and language therapist in the NHS. She also works for TI Anode (UK) Pvt Ltd, an authorised provider of Vital Stim services throughout the UK

“Glenys hadn’t been able to swallow for more than 11 months and after 10 days of treatment using Vital Stim therapy she was able to eat and drink normally. She’s really got her life back,” she said.

“Glenys, like lots of people with dysphagia, had a very poor quality of life, she was poorly motivated and depression can set in, which can mean a slow decline and the condition can become life limiting.

“But after Vital Stim therapy Glenys is now really perky and cracking rugby jokes,” she said.

“This treatment could be a life-saver for more than a million people suffering with swallowing problems caused by a wide range of brain injury or brain disease. The equipment is pictured below.

“It could provide a vast cost saving in the NHS for patients with dysphagia, which could be many millions of pounds a year. It will cut the operating cost of fitting a feeding tube to their stomach, of providing the texture modified food for them and many are in nursing home care because of their lack of independence.

“I’d like the NHS to take up the treatment or study it further, the same sort of treatment is already used on other parts of the body by physiotherapists.”

Consultant neurologist Bob Rafal, who is also professor of clinical neuroscience and neuropsychology at Bangor University, said: “Mrs Watkins’ degree of recovery has been remarkable.

“The published research suggests that this is a promising treatment and my experience in this one patient supports that view. As a consultant I would want Vital Stim therapy to be a treatment for patients with problems with swallowing due to a neurological difficulty, where other treatments had failed.

“Further studies should be done to evaluate Vital Stim therapy’s usefulness and if they bear out its effectiveness over time and in medical practice it should be available on the NHS. I think individual health authorities should allow funding for its use on a case by case basis for patients where other treatments have failed,” he said.

Comments

[anne hogan]

can this treatment cause laryngeal or pharyngeal spase .as i am thinking of getting this treatment for my husband.my husband had a massive stroke 2 years ago.do you think he may benifit from it

[anne hogan]

can this treatment caouse my husbands larex to drop.acording to the speech therapist i spoke to she said it will.and then my husband wont be able to swollow his own saliver .