Birth Trauma
Neal is now in St. Cloud, and has begun his scoliosis treatment. The first day was fascinating. He learned a lot about scoliosis in general and a lot about his individual case. They even took moving x-rays to observe how his spine moves as he moves. They discovered that Neal has quadruple scoliosis, meaning, he has 4 curves in his spine. They feel like they will be able to do a lot to help him. In the past, and even presently, chiropractic care is thought to be beneficial only for pain management for people with scoliosis. Dr. Woggon, the founder of the CLEAR Institute, and the chiropractor Neal will be working with for the next 2 weeks, says, "That is not acceptable. We chiropractors are supposed to be experts on the spine." He told Neal that he loves being a chiropractor and that treating scoliosis is more like a hobby than work for him. Neal is a unique case, so Dr. Woggon is looking forward to "figuring him out."
One of the first things Dr. Woggon wanted to know was about Neal's birth. He has found that 95% of people with scoliosis had some sort of birth trauma. In Neal's case, the cord was wrapped around his neck. This is actually pretty common, and in most cases not an issue, but, they treat it like an emergency. Unwrapping the cord is a priority and they can be pretty brutal about it, even if the baby isn't at any risk. Unless the baby is showing signs of distress, the cord can be left until the birth is complete. You may be thinking, if they know this, why don't they change their routine handling of this sort of situation? It can take a long time to change nurse and doctor habits and the teaching of those habits during their education. Even after they discovered that germs (spread by doctors who didn't wash their hands before dealing with new mothers) were the cause of childbed fever, it took about half a century to change their practices. Maternal death rates at that time were 20%-25% which is incredibly high. And it took them that long to fix it!? In a situation like this where infant mortality and maternal death aren't really concerned, it will take even longer to make the change. Anyway, even in normal birth situations, the handling of newborns can be rough. Here is a video of a fairly common handling of infants:
WARNING: This video is graphic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0QIAZJ_CuE&feature=player_embedded
If you didn't watch: The attending physician is pulling on the baby's head, twisting, yanking and pulling the baby out. This can cause serious damage to the spinal cord. This is probably the sort of handling Neal received at his birth, which damaged his spinal cord and caused severe scoliosis. Knowing that Neal's scoliosis was probably caused by something like this-that it wasn't in his genetics, but caused by harsh handling as a newborn-infuriates me.
Neal has learned so much in just one day! He feels so lucky to have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks receiving all of this education specific to his condition. And I feel lucky to be learning along with him!!!
One of the first things Dr. Woggon wanted to know was about Neal's birth. He has found that 95% of people with scoliosis had some sort of birth trauma. In Neal's case, the cord was wrapped around his neck. This is actually pretty common, and in most cases not an issue, but, they treat it like an emergency. Unwrapping the cord is a priority and they can be pretty brutal about it, even if the baby isn't at any risk. Unless the baby is showing signs of distress, the cord can be left until the birth is complete. You may be thinking, if they know this, why don't they change their routine handling of this sort of situation? It can take a long time to change nurse and doctor habits and the teaching of those habits during their education. Even after they discovered that germs (spread by doctors who didn't wash their hands before dealing with new mothers) were the cause of childbed fever, it took about half a century to change their practices. Maternal death rates at that time were 20%-25% which is incredibly high. And it took them that long to fix it!? In a situation like this where infant mortality and maternal death aren't really concerned, it will take even longer to make the change. Anyway, even in normal birth situations, the handling of newborns can be rough. Here is a video of a fairly common handling of infants:
WARNING: This video is graphic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0QIAZJ_CuE&feature=player_embedded
If you didn't watch: The attending physician is pulling on the baby's head, twisting, yanking and pulling the baby out. This can cause serious damage to the spinal cord. This is probably the sort of handling Neal received at his birth, which damaged his spinal cord and caused severe scoliosis. Knowing that Neal's scoliosis was probably caused by something like this-that it wasn't in his genetics, but caused by harsh handling as a newborn-infuriates me.
Neal has learned so much in just one day! He feels so lucky to have the opportunity to spend 2 weeks receiving all of this education specific to his condition. And I feel lucky to be learning along with him!!!
Comments
Good luck to Neal in his treatments...I will send up some ptayers that the CLEAR institute will be able to help him!