Told that little could be done, the tenacious mother set out to find the best possible treatment for her daughter.
She travelled across the country and eventually found Dr M G Kini, an orthopaedic surgeon in Madras (now Chennai), who had the expertise to treat Usha.
Although the surgeon initially declined to accept Usha’s case, Fathema refused to take no for an answer, and Usha was treated by him for eight months.
Fathema then moved to Pune, where Usha received physiotherapy at a rehabilitation centre for injured soldiers, under the care of British physiotherapists and their Indian assistants.
After three years of treatment and physiotherapy, Usha regained remarkable mobility in her once-paralysed right leg.
Throughout this treatment, Fathema was disturbed by the lack of facilities for children with polio. The lackadaisical attitude of the country’s medical community convinced her to make a difference in the lives of polio patients.
In May 1947, Fathema started the Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children (SRCC).
However, due to low awareness about polio and financial hurdles, Fathema struggled to find space for her clinic. Help came from Dr A V Baliga, who offered his Chowpatty clinic while he was away on a six-month study tour.
Within a year, the clinic was treating 80 children and had a waiting list of over 100 more.