Medical Miracles or Just Unexplored Options

At age 9, Demi-Lee Brennan, of Kiama, Australia got seriously sick. So sick, that her liver got severely damaged and she needed a liver transplant to survive.  Doctors treating her are not yet certain what caused her liver to fail during this illness but believe it to be the handiwork of an unidentified virus.

Luckily, a donor was found and Demi underwent a liver transplant soon after.

Changed blood group

10 months later, she was sick again, and was found to be suffering from life threatening anemia. Tests revealed that stem cells from donor’s liver had entered Demi’s bone marrow. Her body did its own bone marrow transplant and now was treating her own blood cells as foreign objects and destroying them gradually. Later, doctors were amazed to notice that Girl’s blood group changed from O- to that of Donor’s O+.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are stem cells found primarily in adult bone marrow and can progress to become all of the different mature blood cell types. HSCs are also found in blood stream and deposit themselves in liver and spleen as well. That is how donor’s HSCs reached girl’s bone marrow and took over her immune system completely.

Gradually, all cells forming girl’s immune system were replaced by that of Donor’s and she did not have to take immune-suppressant drugs anymore. Her doctors could not find a similar case.

Dr Stormon, the doctor treating Demi says his team is trying to identify how the phenomenon happened and whether it can be replicated. This case is being termed as a miracle and Demi is now known as “one-in-six-billion miracle girl”.

Recovery from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)

Dr Ben Johnson, MD, featured in movie The Secret suffered from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. There is no known cure to halt or reverse ALS. Lou Gehrig’s is fatal for 50% within 18 months of diagnosis, 80% within 5 years, and 99.99% within10 years as the body steadily loses function.

As there was no known cure for ALS, Dr Johnson followed an alternative treatment called ‘The Healing Codes‘ and within 8 weeks of treatment, he was free of ALS.

Miraculous Recovery

Morris Goodman is known as “Miracle Man” for his miraculous recovery after a plane crash in March 1981. Morris, a successful life insurance agent had a plane crash that left him fighting for his life. His neck was broken at 2 places. His diaphragm was destroyed and he could not breathe. His kidney, bladder and liver would not function and doctors said that every muscle of his body was affected by the crash. He could not eat, drink or speak. Only physical activity possible was ‘to blink eyes’: once for ‘yes’, and twice for ‘no’.

Doctors told Morris he would remain like this for the rest of his life yet Morris vowed to walk out of hospital by Christmas. He visualized walking out of hospital by himself and did so repeatedly. Slowly, his condition began to improve, his respiratory abilities came back, he started to sit and then stand up. Eventually, he walked out of hospital on Christmas, just like he visualized.

Incurable can be Curable

There are several more accounts of recoveries from diseases known to be ‘incurable’. In most cases, the cure came from a source out of modern medical science and sometimes the recovery was fast enough to be termed as a miracle. It points to the fact that though modern medical science is efficient: it has known limitations and possibilities exist beyond those limitations.

Some time back, a close friend’s family member was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors advised that cancer was at an advanced stage and nothing could be done. Family lost all hope due to the gloomy prognosis and did not search further for any possible treatment.

Though not mainstream, two treatments, Dr Johanna Budwig’s Oil Protein Diet and Dr Royal R. Rife’s ray machine are known to help cancer patients.

There were options available that might have helped but family was so much shocked, scared and disheartened by the gloomy prognosis that they did not look for any options. In a developing field like medicine, new therapies and drugs are introduced frequently and at times, it is not possible for physician to be aware of all new developments.

As patients or caretakers, it is in our interest to keep ourselves abreast of all new developments relevant to our case.

Possibilities do exist beyond known limitations: Medical, Physical, Social and Financial alike. It helps to keep a high morale and not lose hope. If someone known is suffering from so called incurable conditions, let them know that all is not lost. Miracles do happen and can happen to anybody, if they wish to!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematopoietic_stem_cells
http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/morris_goodman071806.aspx
http://www.articlealley.com/article_164239_51.html
http://barleans.com/literature/flax/127-flax-an-kidney-disease.html