A teenage mother was detained in a psychiatric hospital during her pregnancy, given high levels of medication plus ECT during this period; So that the developing brain of the baby has 220 volts running through it. That was 1949, that baby was me. Of course in 2014 that doesn’t happen does it? Well, actually in some cases it still does!

I spent 5 months with my birth mother at Chaddeslode House which in those days was a home for unmarried mothers. Then a merry-go-round of various placements until finally at 4 yrs old I was adopted, sadly already with embedded anxiety and emotional issues. My adoption was a bit of a disaster and my childhood and adolescence was a very difficult time. 

However what I did have right from toddler hood through to adolescence was the continual support and care of just one exceptional Welfare Officer/Social Worker. She made every child in her care feel special always there for them, going the extra mile even out-of-hours. She guided me through those turbulent times pointing me in the right direction. She saw my potential and used her skills to keep me from going into care again. 

That was the 1950s/60s So now of course that level of care and continuity within Children’s Services is the norm isn’t it? Sadly it isn’t the norm. So was I more fortunate during the 1950s/60s then our Children with emotional issues are today? 

I would really appreciate your comments about this particular blog and if you think Children’s Services have made progress in the last sixty years or is there more that could be done to help vulnerable children? 

Lynda Jones-Official Blogger Shropshire Disability Network on Mental Health Issues

With TRM a prosthetic limb is controlled solely by a User’s thought process! The user imagines moving the prosthetic limb and it responds accordingly. To enable this to happen surgery is performed to redirect the nerves that used to control the limb to a new muscle group. Amazingly by connecting existing functioning nerves that controlled a persons limb to a new group of muscles so these muscles can read signals. 

In order for the prosthesis to work, the user has to imagine moving their missing limb. Nerves send these thought signals from the brain to the new target muscle & the result is the muscle contracts. Electrodes that are carefully placed against the skin recognise the signals & with the use of a small computer, it translates them into the desired movement. This results in the user being able to control the prosthesis, even allowing control more than one joint at a time. Ie rotating a hand & gripping with it or bending an elbow & wrist. How amazing technology is becoming but it does not come without hard work by the amputee, expert knowledge of surgeons and a host of other people that work in different areas of the medical profession.

SDN likes to bring you up to date information on may areas of disability, & indeed just one example was in the March 2014 edition of “Your Voice” which included an article from Access On-line magazine. This particular article reported that a team of Swiss & Italian scientists had enabled Danish amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen to test a wired prosthetic hand enabling him to sense touch. This had been the result of 5 hour operation when electrodes were grafted onto the ulna & median nerves in Dennis’s upper arm. The results were amazing as the outcome was better than expected when he experienced accurate touch in his finger tips but despite this as it was only an experiment Dennis soon had to revert back to his prosthetic limb. 

I was reading a Blesma magazine & discovered amazing things are happening closer to home as technology in the UK has now enabled Corporal Andy Garthwaite to be the first person in the UK to control his prosthesis by thought alone! In September 2010 Andy was wounded in Afghanistan by a rocket propelled grenade, robbing him completely of his right arm. As with anyone loosing a limb there is rehabilitation programme that takes place in the hope of getting back as much as possible of what has been taken from you. Initially he was given a traditional prosthetic arm, as any one would find, this is no substitute for what you have lost, plus having live with the many frustrations that someone in this situation must experience. 

Thanks to a process called Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR) & a very clever surgeon from Austria called Professor Aszmann, during a 6 hour operation on Corporal Garthwaite redirected intact nerves into muscles on his chest wall. By placing electrodes on those muscles they become natural amplifiers which then work the prosthesis. Corporal Garthwaite lost his arm from the shoulder so that is why muscles on his chest wall were used. Now when he thinks about using his prosthetic arm it is the thoughts in his mind that triggers the chest muscles to that movement ie to lift, extend. Since Andy’s operation in December 2013, everyday tasks that many people just take as the granted ie turning pages in a book, stirring a cup of tea, making drinks, opening a bottle, unscrewing a jar have become easier for Him. So often people with prosthesis, due to many frustrations in lack of function don’t wear them but with TMR the limb is closer than ever to being like the one you have lost making life easier. 

Like Captain Nic Beighton who spoke at our SDN meeting last December, it takes a lot of rehab & determination by the person who has lost limb(s) to work hard, practice & more practice in order to achieve new goals. Of course for this patients also need the support of not only surgeons & nurses but specialist physiotherapists & occupational therapists. As we know, even with technology nothing will be exactly like the limb you have lost but it is good to see how modern technology is moving forward & hopefully continue to move forward. 

Andy received treatment at several places & like Nick had a lot of his treatment at Headley Court & both are thankful to the MOD & support Blesma as well as many others for the help & support given to them. SDN followed the team which included Nick Beighton-(double amputee & Paralympian London 2012) taking part earlier this year in Beeline Britain (First ever Land’s End to John O’Groats in a straight line)

and you can read (and support) more about this epic challenge by visiting http://beelinebritain.com 

Next time: How Targeted Muscle Reinnervation works.