Source: Givealittle / rehab4asha.
Kiwi Asha Prasad, living in Otorohanga, has started a donations page after her health insurance stopped funding her rehabilitation. Asha suffered a stroke and was left paralyzed following a free work massage in Sydney.
A woman given no longer than a year to live after a stroke during a massage has regained movement and speech.
New Zealander Asha Prasad, who lives in Otorohanga, was only 26 years old when she received a free massage at work, which ruptured a blood vessel. Four days later she suffered a stroke.
Tragically, Asha woke up paralysed from the neck down. She was given no more than a year to live, the Daily Mail reported.
However, her fighting spirit came to the fore as 10 years later she has regained speech and movement, defying the odds.
Her intensive gym therapy helped build her strength back so she could gain the control to do her own makeup, brush her teeth and use her computer.
But her battle hasn't come without more obstacles. Asha's ongoing medical bills are piling up after she claims her insurer GIO, a body of insurance giant Suncorp, began rolling back payments, according to 7 News.
One of the payments rolled back was her intensive therapy, after an expert reviewing her programme advised the company to fund a cheaper option.
"It was unreasonable and unnecessary," Asha told 7 News.
Asha is in desperate need of funds to help pay for a new manual wheelchair to replace her crumbling, patched up, 10-year-old one.
Asha is in desperate need of funds to help afford a new manual wheelchair to replace her crumbling, patched up, ten-year-old one. Photo / Seven News
She also needs other support equipment such as a new bed, a new stand-up hoist, a van and nursing supplies.
But her struggle against the insurer does not seem to be making any leeway.
A Suncorp/GIO media officer told 7 News that based on their advice, Asha will struggle to get any of these items.
According to 7 News Suncorp stopped the funding because expert advice said the treatment Asha was undergoing was unreasonable.
Now Asha has turned to crowdfunding for support.
On her site, it says, "I am still wheelchair bound, I still talk slurry, I can't walk yet, my left side is weak and my left toes still do not move but, I believe I can rehabilitate further."
Asha explains that after her insurer offered a home-based physiotherapy programme, instead of her intensive therapy, her progress deteriorated.
Asha wants to use Neuromoves, an innovative programme aimed at improving neurological conditions, but it is in Sydney, and is expensive.
Asha wants to achieve a better quality of life and is determined to get there. Photo / Facebook
"We do that by using quite an innovative approach but basic science tells you if you keep the body moving, it will keep improving and seeing improvements," exercise manager Kierre Williams said.
Asha is struggling afford the costs to fly from New Zealand to Sydney, which was the purpose of the crowdfunding.
The crowdfunding site is set up to help her raise the funds to keep fighting and will go towards the airfares, cost of caregivers, extra luggage expenses, medical supplies, accommodation expenses, injury equipment costs and cost of the rehab programmes.
Asha wants to achieve a better quality of life and is determined to get there.
