Mother builds homemade contraption to help her son with cerebral palsy ‘stand’
A heartbreaking work of ingenuity
A heartbreaking video has gone viral on Chinese social media, showing a mother doing all that she can to help her young son with cerebral palsy.
Both of Li Lifang’s sons suffer from cerebral palsy. Her 20-year-old son can barely walk, while her 5-year-old is completely unable to. Hoping to help him rehabilitate, Li has put together a contraption inside her home in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, made from a plank of wood, an iron chain, and cloth straps.
In a video published by the Beijing News, Li is seen strapping her younger son onto the wooden board and then raising it up with the chain so that he is “standing.” She then tries to correct his posture, hoping that someday he’ll be able to stand up on his own.
The 46-year-old woman says that she does this every day with her son for between 30 minutes to an hour. She says that she doesn’t know why both of her sons have cerebral palsy, but that she is ready to face the challenge of raising them.
While some Chinese netizens expressed their doubts about Li’s method of physical therapy, most said that her heart was obviously in the right place, she just lacks the means to get her son professional treatment, and has to make do with what she has around the house.
Over the years, we’ve seen a number of similar stories of impoverished parents devoting their lives to helping their children with cerebral palsy. One Shanxi couple adopted an abandoned infant girl with the disorder and have spent the past 15 years feeding her mouth-to-mouth.
[Images via Beijing News]
