Dieu-Donne receives a gift from God

By Sandra Stalder

 

Dieu-Donne had a stroke in year 2014. He got referred to the Occupational Therapy at HJRA through the doctors in November. He is a farmer and works on the fields all day long. Because of his stroke he was not able to work longer than 30 minutes a day. His wife had to take over the hard work.

Problems with hand function made it impossible to weed and plant little seeds. Because of pain in the right shoulder and loss of strength in the arm he could not water the plants and was not able to hold an axe for tilling the soil. To get to the fields Dieu-Donne has to walk several kilometres up and down hill. After the stroke this was exhausting and very difficult. Also the sitting on kneels was not possible for more than 30 minutes.

Together with Dieu-Donne we developed objectives and their priorities. Doing activities in a kneeling position, strengthening exercises for his arm and legs, fine motoric exercises with beans, activities for active shoulder mobilisation and strengthening of fingers with clothes pegs were part of the therapy sessions at HJRA. After three months of occupational therapy Dieu-Donne is able to work 3 hours in the kneeling position. His hand functions have returned to normal enabling him to once again weed and plant seeds. Holding of an axe is no longer a problem, as well as the watering of plants. When Dieu-Donne walks up hill one can not see that he recently had a stroke.

It was a great experience to work with Dieu-Donne and see the huge progress he made in the last three months. He is now able to contribute again to the family income and do the activities that give meaning to his life.