Himanshu Prasad hopes to be able to walk without crutches when he graduates from high school, thanks to surgery and hard work

“The year 2022 will be the year when everything changes,” said Prasad, a high school senior at Cypress-Ridge High School.

The 17-year-old boy was born with hemiplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that causes strain in the hip and leg muscles. Throughout his life, he had at times had to use crutches or even a wheelchair.

In August, Prasad underwent a pediatric neurosurgery at Children Memorial Hermann Hospital called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, or SDR, in which the nerve was actually cut, and it changed his life. .

“We said, ‘It’s a pretty safe surgery. It will require a year’s commitment, but you’d better live your life with this,” Prasad told his feet. “I’ve been able to do things that I could never do. I missed out on a lot of things as a child.”

Prasad did two months of inpatient treatment that included working with the exoskeleton of the TIRR Memorial Hermann, a robot he will wear three times a week to help him relearn what many consider to be the course. “It’s teaching my brain how to walk.”

The inpatient then transitioned to the outpatient, where ABC13 met with him on Monday. He is strengthening his muscles and walking more smoothly. At their graduation this spring, honors students are asking for a full display.

“For me, it would be like, ‘I was in high school and I learned to walk from the ground to the way up.” And that will be a moment I will never forget,” Prasad said.

Prasad hopes to be self-sufficient in time to attend university next fall. He wants to study materials science and engineering at Texas A&M and wants to help with any help he needs in his young life.

“Hopefully I can walk without crutches,” he said.

Dr Manish Shah, a pediatric surgeon with UTHealth, performed the surgery. Dr. Stacey Hall, assistant professor of pediatric rehabilitation medicine at UTHealth Houston, worked with Prasad during his inpatient stay at TIRR Memorial Hermann.

“He worked really hard. Honestly, he’s one of the harder patients I’ve ever met,” Hall said. “What he has achieved is truly remarkable.”

Hall said Prasad is ahead of schedule in recovery and treatment. He has a positive outlook and goals now no longer seem impossible.

“New year, new baby.”

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