Kuduchi is a small village in Belgaum with a bigger agricultural land. In this small place lives our fighter VIRUPAKSHA SHEKAR BASAGUNDE, a 27yr old male. He lives with his family at Kuduchi. Virupaksha comes from a family who has a few small acres of agricultural land. He lives with his small family, with his father, mother, grandmother, brother, sister-in-law and her two little girls, his whole family works at the farm. Virupaksha Shekar Basagunde is fighting severe cervical dystonia since 2010. His family moved from Belgaum to Bangalore for his surgery and then further rehabilitation. Making ends meet while making sure Virupaksha gets back to the independent walking boy.
How did the dystonia start?
Dystonia was slowly developing in arms and then legs when Virupaksha was in 10th std. there was an attack of gradual stroke which affected both his arms and then legs. The family members rushed him to the mission hospital at Maharashtra. After spending a huge amount they felt there was no improvement in his condition. This saddened the family to the whole point.
Earlier Virupaksha used to work as a driver and rides a tractor in and around their farm. But once the illness has worsened in, he was unable to move his upper and lower limb and also he had severe dystonia of both upper and lower limb. He was bedridden since then.
It was then the critical period started for Virupaksha and his family. In 2011, he was taken to Qutub Makandhar Hospital, Belgaum. The hopes of the family were again lost with no improvement in the condition. The dystonia kept increasing with severe problems even in speech. His body imbalance doesn’t let him eat and he’s rapidly losing weight and her strength. Virupaksha can barely move or walk.
The CT scans showed them how serious Virupaksha's condition was. They were asked to go to the nearest town near kuduchi. On 2012, Dr. Shabade, their family doctor in kuduchi referred to Bangalore- NIMHANS for DBS. DBS was used for 2 yrs continuously and found no improvement in the body at all.
On 10TH October, 2017, Virupaksha was then referred to Dr. Sharan and operated to remove the DBS and did functional neuro-surgery on him. From this moment on the Neuro rehab started and the family gained hopes for getting their son better.
Neuro rehab started immediately after the surgery. Intense therapy for two months brought drastic change in him. From walking with and without support, control and strength in lower limb to the clear intelligible speech. Initially he came with lot of instability in whole of the body, With no control in the neck. He had difficulty while walking and talking. He needed someone to support his head while talking. He was completely unable to walk or stand without support.
Just 2 months of intense therapy brought changes and hopes in family and himself.