For over sixty years, the Vojta Method has been helping children and adults around the world improve their mobility and muscle function. This year marked the centenary of the birth of its author, the prominent Czech and German doctor, Professor Václav Vojta. The world-famous expert significantly enriched pediatric neurology and separated it from adults. His name is associated with the successful medical rehabilitation of children, which we provide to patients with cerebral palsy and other neurological diseases at the Vesna Children's Hospital in Janské Lázně.
"We practice the Vojta method with physiotherapist Dagmar Žáková, and from the very beginning we have been looked after by the head physician Vasil Janko, who is very kind. And I have great respect for the founder of the method – Professor Václav Vojta," says the mother of eight-year-old Davídek, who has cerebral palsy.
"Professor Václav Vojta helped thousands of children, not only with cerebral palsy. He worked at the Železnice spa, which later became part of the State Medical Spa of Janské Lázně. We are glad that this challenging exercise helps children even in the 21st century and that mothers praise it."
The physiotherapy concept is based on reflex locomotion and was created on the basis of Professor Vojta's findings on the development of a child's posture and movements. "It is necessary to remember that Václav Vojta was a student of Professor Kamil Henner, a legend of Czech neurology. Professor Vojta was therefore the next torchbearer," said the head of the Vesna Children's Hospital, Dr. Vasil Janko.
Vojta developed his concept in the Podkrkonoší Mountains
After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, Václav Vojta worked, under the leadership of Professor Kamil Henner, at the Children's Neurology Clinic of the General University Hospital, and from 1954 he worked at the Children's Hospital in Železnice, where he began to devote himself exclusively to child patients. "Apparently he represented or served here, because in one interview, when asked when he was happiest, he replied that he was at the Railway Station, when toddlers were climbing on him," Vasil Janko recalled.
The basis of treatment at the spa in Železnice was medical rehabilitation, which used special methods of therapeutic physical education. "The most widely used method was the one developed and put into practice by MUDr. Vojta," writes Ladislav Stuchlík in Bělohradské listy No. 2/2011. Reflex locomotion – a rehabilitation method for treating spastics, children affected by cerebral palsy and other neurological diseases – came to light precisely as Vojta's concept. "Children learned exercise procedures in the treatment center. At the end of each stay, parents were given instructions on how to exercise with their child. Over time, the treatment was extended to other disorders of the central nervous system, i.e. conditions after brain injuries, brain inflammation, stroke, and the like," said Václav Stuchlík with the contribution of MUDr. Alois Stehlík in the article Lázně v Železnice, printed in Bělohradské listy No. 2/2011.
Normalization drove Václav Vojta out of his homeland
However, Professor Václav Vojta could not further develop his work in Czechoslovakia, and was forced to emigrate in 1968. He continued to treat children's developmental disorders in West Germany and became a world-renowned expert. He returned to our country after the revolution in 1989. As he himself stated, he would never have succeeded in implementing the method if he had not had the trust of the parents of his child patients.
Chief Vasil Janko also comments on the consequences of normalization in the former Czechoslovakia, following the legacy of Václav Vojta: "Regarding Vojt's reflex locomotion as a principle, it was not directly "banned" in the normalization of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, but the name Vojt was not mentioned much. For example, in a publication from 1975, which I will not allow to be omitted, the chapter is called "Reflex therapy of children with cerebral palsy, introduced at the pediatric neurology department of the Charles University Hospital in Prague" and I did not find the name Vojt in the text."
Neurokinesiological examination techniques developed by Professor Vojta are now used worldwide for the early diagnosis of motor developmental disorders in infants and young children. They are the basis for starting therapy as early as possible - even if no specific disorders can yet be clinically recognized.
Stories of children from Vesna
The Vesna Children's Hospital is the largest treatment and rehabilitation facility in the Czech Republic, where they use this concept in the care of children with cerebral palsy and movement disorders. The doctors and physiotherapists here are direct successors of Professor Václav Vojta's legacy, and the parents of the children treated here praise Vojta's method.
The parents of eight-year-old Davídek, who has severe cerebral palsy after a serious injury and is dependent on the arms of his closest and other caregivers, make the most of the opportunities for rehabilitation and exercise that are available in Janské Lázně. "We practice the Vojta method with physiotherapist Dagmar Žáková, and from the very beginning, head physician Vasil Janko has been taking care of us, who is very kind and we are very grateful to him," says mom. "I have great respect for the founder of the method – Professor Václav Vojta. This man should be here forever, he did a lot for children when he invented such an effective exercise. Even though Davídek cries and regrets during “Vojtovka”, when we finish, he laughs, even though he is very tired.”
Vojta's method also helped eight-year-old Madlenka: "They told me that if someone practiced it in America, they would see it as child abuse," says Mrs. Olga, the mother of an eight-year-old girl who is enthusiastic about the special method: "I will not allow "Vojtovka" to happen. It is the best method that exists and I am "thankful" that it happened to us in the Czech Republic, because healthcare in the Czech Republic is priceless. I tell my friends in Ukraine that your healthcare is at such a level that parents can afford better and better procedures."
Ms. Olga also explained that although they practice Vojta's method in Ukraine, they do not do it as well and in depth as in Janské Lázně. "That's why we all praise you, who are here with children and practice "Vojtovka". We get precise instructions here on how to do the exercises correctly, how to properly press the points on the child's body and how to "not go through" the pain. That's why I'm glad I live in the Czech Republic, because only well-off families who can do this for their baby can travel from abroad. Now that my daughter is older, she has added other fitness exercises. And I look forward to it getting better and better.”
Zdenka Hanyšová Whole,
public communication for SLL Janské Lázně,
Tel. +420 777 348 529, e-mail: hanysova@hanycom.cz
