Make an appointment for treatment
Everything in life is achieved through hard work. Happy moments, when dreams turn into reality, are often an iceberg, the basis of which is a huge desire to achieve something and a lot of effort and time spent on it. But, unfortunately, not everyone can realize their passions and look for comfort, and justification, for example, in other people’s sins.
The following example is proof of how plastic our brain is, and how substantial our body’s reserves are. And what a creative significance parental strength and desire have.
Many now cannot attend treatment, although they live close to the institute. Parents are looking for different reasons to justify, the most important, of course, is the war.
Park’s family from the United States overcame a long and difficult way to reach our Institute in Dnipro and continue the autism treatment of little Danny. With heavy suitcases and a child, they traveled by almost all types of transport: from Miami, they flew to Frankfurt in Germany, from there to Poland, by flight to Warsaw, then by bus to Lviv, then by train to Dnipro.
Valentina did not want to believe that her beloved grandson had autism, confirmed by doctors in the United States. She was sure she would find a doctor who would help their little Danny. Even if you had to go around the world for this.
When she and her husband came from the United States to visit their relatives in Kremenchuk, their friends told them about Professor Rahmanov’s method, thanks to which they cured their child. The next day, the couple was in Dnipro. They found the Institute, arrived, approached the gate… stood, and drove back. Why they did that then – even now the woman cannot explain. It was as if some force was preventing me from entering the yard. Probably, uncertainty, uncertainty, doubt, and mistrust of the medicine that existed at that time.
They returned within a year. Already with little Danny for the 1st stage of treatment. The boy was then 4 years and 3 months old. He came accompanied by his grandmother, grandfather, and grandmother’s sister. He arrived in a cart, he had weak muscle tone, the baby was fussy all the time, asked to be held, and did not want to walk on his own. When we were driving back, after treatment at the Institute, the stroller was left in Ukraine, to the joy of the whole family, it was no longer needed, Danny was walking!
After we didn’t dare to go to the Institute, – says Valentina, – after returning to the United States, we still wrote to the e-mail address of our institute that we would like to clarify whether they would help us. But they didn’t get a reply, as they told us later, they saw our letter but treated it almost like spam, they didn’t believe that we would still come from far away from the United States.
But we are persistent because we have not found an alternative to Professor Rahmanov’s method in the world – we are here with our Dani, already at the 9th stage of treatment. All over the world, it is believed that autism is incurable, and only Professor Rakhmanov treats such children and gives them a chance to socialize in society.
In 2004, the Gaidai family won a green card and moved from Kremenchuk, Poltava region, to Miami, Florida, USA. Julia was 17 years old then, she just graduated from school with a gold medal. In the United States Julia met Dmytro from Vladivostok. Dima is Korean by nationality. Young people started dating when Julia was 24 years old, and Dima was 28 years old. The young people got married within a year, and Dani was born within a year.
Julia’s pregnancy went perfectly, as she says, everything was fine, and there were no abnormalities. The girl felt great, she was happy to do housework: she washed dishes, windows, and floors, and played sports. The boys were really looking forward to their first child. The birth was very difficult, the fetus was large, wrapped around the umbilical cord, and the baby was born with a weight of 4.5 kg. The doctor was a Russian speaker, she proposed to use a vacuum – extraction – a reproductive operation in which the fetus is artificially extracted through the natural birth canal with the help of a special device – a vacuum extractor. The boy was immediately given his first vaccination – as required by United States law.
The grandmother noticed deviations in behavior already at 6 months. “If you have children, you can intuitively determine the state of your grandchildren,” says Valentina. Daniel’s mother Julia, a doctor by profession, connects the onset of the disease with the vaccination that the boy received at the 1.5 y.o. A few days after vaccination, he stopped making contact with loved ones, responded to his name on the playground, began to walk in socks, could jump in place for a long time, wave his hands, and stopped eating fruits and vegetables, while eating, the vomiting reflex was triggered, he repelled a plate from him, he stopped noticing his beloved dog — a Yorkie, which he used to love very much, the indicative gesture, how to put a sock on him, not to pull it up – he doesn’t care.
Julia, too, seemed to have disconnected from life and closed herself off: darkness, swaddling, fear, anxiety, panic, uncertainty about the future – that’s what she felt. “I didn’t understand how to live on,” she says, “a terrible depression began, sleep and appetite worsened, hair began to fall out, gray hair even appeared, mom and dad didn’t have gray hair yet, but I did. For a long time, I did not want to admit that Danny was sick, I thought that boys speak later than girls, so he will speak, and I thought that two languages - Russian and English – are difficult for him. I wanted my child to be the best. Stopped communicating with friends. With several girlfriends, we gave birth to children almost at the same time, they shared their joys and achievements of children: someone took the first step, someone said the first word, etc., but we did not have this. I could not listen to these conversations, I stopped communicating with them, I had nothing to say, I was ashamed and embarrassed for my child. There was even envy of the success of other people’s children. We stopped visiting on holidays.
The atmosphere at home was tense. My husband had panic attacks. He never knew his father and even wanted to be a bright, bright dad for Danny, even loved Danny, it was even more important for him to accept his son’s camp. We gasped at the fact that we read a lot of literature where autism is not happy. We were told in different ways, for example: “Send the child to a boarding school” — seeing such words made me sick. We did not know how to breathe.
Julia and Dmytro took their child to a pediatrician in the United States, protested Denny, and said that the widows of the medical commission were needed, representatives of which came to their home. Then Julia was asked for a medical center, and they saw papers, which confirm that the child has autism. The medical diagnosis was unfamiliar: autism spectrum disorder ASD, and delayed speech and language development.
Around this time, Danny went to a private kindergarten where he was 1.5 y.o. the mistress of which was Russian-speaking. After some time, she invited Yulia and Dmytro to her place and said that Danny would be better off in another school (in the United States, kindergartens are attached to schools), where there is special therapy and attention for such children is needed. By the way, as Grandma Danny says, in the US, children’s problems are never discussed at parent meetings, if something happens, only the parents of a specific child are called, and their issues, education, or behavior are never discussed on behalf of other parents. General parent meetings can be held only, for example, on such an occasion as a class trip on an excursion. A note to parents of teenagers – it is forbidden by law to leave one child under the age of 14 here, it must always be accompanied by adults. There is simply no teenage alcoholism there, you can buy alcohol in stores from the age of 21.
The parents were interviewed and Danny was transferred to a kindergarten for special children, where there are 4 mentors for 6 children: two educators and two nannies. Wherever they turned in the hope of curing the baby… They gave him some drops that were recommended in a psychological center, where they paid 600 dollars just for the consultation. They even went to “grandmothers”, “to their own”, who moved to the United States from the ex-Soviet Union.”
Meanwhile, Danny’s dad stayed up at night and studied all the information on websites about his son’s illness. And he concluded that they need to use the recommendation of their grandmother’s friend — to turn to the Research Institute of Child and Family Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, Psychology, Medical, and Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Dnipro, Ukraine. To our great joy, after 6 days of the 1st stage, Danny began to repeat his grandfather’s morning gym exercises.
– Now our boy is already sitting at the table by himself, which we only dreamed about before, – says Julia, – he can point with his finger to the object he is talking about, he walks around the house by himself, he has improved his sleep, he has started playing with the kitten. What is normal for ordinary children and their parents is a great joy for us, we rejoice at every small change in the child’s behavior. For example, they were very happy when Danny bit an apple, he had never touched them before. I even filmed when he started eating fruit again.
However, I had a cognitive dissonance when we got here for the first time: special movements according to the professor’s program during treatment – DDVA therapy method – dosed deprivation of visual activity! I kept asking: “Why”? Then all the questions fell away: that’s how everything should be! My husband didn’t believe in a positive result for a long time, he read negative reviews about the Institute on the Internet. Apparently, such reviews are written by envious people, perhaps even medical colleagues, to denigrate professor Rahmanov’s methodology.
After another stage of treatment, he began to repeat sounds, syllables, and what was previously just a dream. It has become better in everything: he understands if you say: “Take the jacket, fasten it”. The shoes are now put in place, the clothes are put in the closet. Before he did not have the instinct of self-preservation, he did not walk — he ran, jumped, ran, not knowing where, he was not afraid of heights, animals, or cars, without fear of the consequences, he went to any person, did not distinguish between relatives and strangers. Now he is looking for us with his eyes everywhere, for example, at the airport, he is afraid of losing us, he walks next to us. By the way, we bought 3 flight tickets so that Danny could sit comfortably in the cabin. He learned to ride a scooter, became more independent, and can go to the kitchen by himself, and get something to eat. He can take a book and calmly lie in the bedroom to look at it.
There is still some selectivity left in food, he rarely eats berries, for example, he likes watermelon, he eats vegetables in stew and soup, and rarely eats fresh ones. But this is the last thing we worry about, the main thing is to restore the child’s communication and understanding. We listen and obey the professor, in addition to the fact that the baby is recovering, I keep a table where I record all the changes in Danny’s condition. To Daniel’s joy, our old dream came true.
Until the 5 y.o, we didn’t even think about a second child, we wanted to be with Danny all the time. When the first improvements appeared after the professor’s treatment, there was a desire to raise a second child. I wanted Danny to see how normal children develop.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get pregnant for a long time, two of my pregnancies failed, probably it wasn’t the right time… I was nervous all the time, worried that the second child would be born healthy, and also frequent flights – they took Danny for treatment. This influenced the fact that one pregnancy ended in an involuntary pathological termination, and the second – was in the freezing of the fetus. Later, the test showed two strips, and in nine months, Demian was born. Now our second baby is 10 months old. We don’t give him vaccinations until he says the first word, we are very scared of the result of Dan’s vaccinations. Therefore, no one will come close to our Demian with vaccination. We will most likely withhold vaccinations even if she starts talking. While we are in Ukraine, the baby is at home with dad.
We watched how Danny would react to Damian’s appearance. The first month he was noticeably nervous, had strong mood swings, clenched his fists, and shook our hands. On the advice of the teachers, we bought two toy donkeys with long ears, one for home, and the other for school, so that he would not shake hands with the teachers. Danny tightly squeezed the ears of the donkeys, we felt sorry for him, stroked him, hugged him.
It was difficult for him to accept the fact that I was holding another baby in my arms, he did not want to go to extra classes, and he cried. He went to school for classes, he really likes the bright school bus. Little by little, Dani got used to his younger brother, he even helps, for example, if I drive the car, gives Demian a bottle of water, and if he cries – covers him with a blanket.
In the United States, children go to the first grade at the age of 5, Danny stayed in kindergarten until the age of 6 y.o. Then he went to a primary school, to a special class for children with special needs. There are both public and private schools for autistic children.
Americans don’t think of autism as a disease, but rather as a mental condition. There, it is customary to treat such children simply as individuals with a special nervous system. Autism is not treated, but they try to get children out of this state with attention, lessons, classes with a speech therapist, and physical training.
Four types of therapy are provided: behavioral therapy, classes with speech therapists, general classes, and exercises in the gym with an instructor. We tried everything, but nothing helped, and there was no result.
At home, we also constantly work with tutors, teachers, and speech therapists. But this, unfortunately, gives a maximum of 10% improvement. I no longer go to doctors in the US. We were registered, and we have to come to a special center every six months to register. But we also stopped going there. Why? It’s a waste of time, they’ll just ask me how my child is doing, talk to me about autism not being a disease, “need to wait” and that’s it.
When we talked about the improvement after treatment with Professor Rakhmanov, we heard in response: “We are glad that we are helping you, but we do not believe that it is possible.”
– Everything depends on the parents’ attitude towards special children, – says Valentina, – my cosmetologist also has an autistic daughter, and the girl’s understanding is zero. We often communicate, I told her more than once: “Nina, contact Professor Rahman, he will help your girl.” But their family decided to give birth to a second child, and the older girl is going to be transferred to a special center for autistic children. This is very expensive. It is a pity that the child will not receive the necessary help.
Because of the war in Ukraine, we had to miss six months of treatment from professor Rahmanov. It was on February 24 that we had plane tickets to Ukraine, which we later changed to September. Of course, we were very worried about how we would get there, but, thank God, we covered such a long way well.
I feel calm and easy at the Institute in Dnipro. The fear of driving a car passed, which I had after an accident in the United States. After a clumsy self-massage a few years ago, I developed headaches and dizziness. In the United States the doctor prescribed me nausea pills and sleeping pills as treatment, I bought a whole package of various medicines. On the third day in Dnipro, at the Professor’s Institute, I forgot that I had a headache.
My husband was helped by a professor to get rid of a long-standing problem. The husband is a former paratrooper, and his height is accompanied by the corresponding size of the leg – 46th. When he served in the army, shoes of the right size were not found for him, they issued the maximum, 45th. So he spent several years in shoes that didn’t fit his feet. As a result, the fungus is on the big toes of both feet. Where we just didn’t get treated … The man suffered with these nails practically all his life, no ointments – pills – lotions did not help. We are very grateful to the professor for the treatment.
– My husband even began to confidently go to the beach now, – Julia adds, – before he hid his feet in the sand, he was very embarrassed, and this summer he even said: “Finally, I can buy myself fashionable sandals with an open toe!”.
We are very grateful to professor Rahmanov and the medical team of the Institute for everything, for helping our family, we are very happy about the positive changes in Danny’s health, but we know that all the improvements come at home, where it will be even better.
We are open to communication and ready to answer all questions if they arise after reading our story:
+1 (954) 439 39 65 – Valentina, grandmother.
+1 (954) 494 88 54 – Julia, mother.