Ethan Roggatz has made brilliant strides in his cerebral palsy therapy recently. On Father’s Day, he managed to ride his bike between a small park in his home town, to a near-by drive inn. His mother says that a year earlier, he would have struggled to make such a ride.
“We had to push him for half of the ride last year,” his father Doug said. “And that was all on flat ground.” Ethan’s father said.
So what can Ethan attribute his recent success to? The family credits a mental/physical therapy developed in Poland called Euro therapy. Recently, Ethan spent the entire month of May working with therapists at a rehab clinic that offers this therapy.
According to Ethan, it wasn’t easy. He says he would come home every day quite exhausted from the work he performed on the treadmill, with weights and other devices.
After his stay at Team Rehab in Decorah, Iowa, Ethan was able to take home a sheet of exercises that he completes daily under the watchful care of his sisters. Now Ethan works out and positions himself in a “stander” which allows him to watch TV and surf the Internet while he builds his bone strength. He spends up to two hours at a time in this “stander” every day.
Ethan’s mother says that the family is saving money now in an effort to allow Ethan a return trip to Team Rehab for another round of Euro therapy. She is hopeful that the therapy will allow Ethan to avoid a surgery planned for later this summer. Doctors told her earlier that they believed Ethan would need a procedure to lengthen his hamstrings.