It all started with a fund raiser at the Armond Hammer Museum is Westwood, California, near the UCLA campus. It was a gala event with dignitaries from the Nicaraguan government and members of the "high society" of Los Angeles. It was at this gathering that a number of doctors volunteered to be part of a medical team to go to Nicaragua.
After a few meetings to arrange the logistics of such an excursion, a group of us shortly thereafter found ourselves on our way to Nicaragua's capital city Managua. Our health team was sponsored by the Forward Edge Missionary Group. Thousands of dollars had been donated in the form of medical supplies which were to supply three medical teams going to three destinations in Nicaragua: Matagalpas; Bluefields; Port Cabezas. Though this was not this group's first venture to Nicaragua, this was the first time they included chiropractors in this otherwise predominantly medical group.
Arriving in Managua, we were met by Nicaraguan President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro who gave us her blessing and thanked us for our efforts. Huell Howser from PBS television was also present to do a documentary of our trip.
Our first day in Managua was not auspicious: an air strike kept us from our Bluefields destination. Meanwhile we decided to go to a nearby orphanage where we attended to the needs of some 90 children. We saw lice, scabies, eye and ear infections, and multiple musculoskeletal disorders. As we were to discover, the medical problems the kids at the orphanage were suffering from were the least serious we were to encounter during our trip.
Our second day in Managua we were able to fly to Bluefields, a community of 50,000 people living in close proximity to the Atlantic. After a short tour of the town and an underequipped hospital with Cuban doctors, we went to work.
Our daily schedule was 8:30-1:00 and 2:00-8:00 p.m. People began lining up before sunrise. We saw conditions that you'd rarely find back home: malaligned healed fractures; children that have seizures without medication; malnutrition and dehydrated babies. We saw some 700 patients that week.
One of the biggest challenges was to show the ever suspicious medical doctors the benefits of chiropractic. Beside the typically chiropractic structural conditions which the medical team would have standardly handled with a one month supply of aspirin, I was able to determine the origin of a type of asthma commonly found in the area of Bluefields. I came upon the discovery with a combination of Bioelectromagnetic Synchronization Technique (BEST), and Naburdripad's Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET). With the help of these techniques I was able to differentiate the etiology of the asthma, a fungus, and treat it successfully. As records were kept on all the patients we treated on our Nicaragua "92" tour, I will be able to follow up on the effectiveness of the treatments. It is needless to say that when exposed to a population that never had chiropractic care, the incidence of "chiropractic miracles" is very high.
Dr. Spunt, a spry, semi-retired 64-year-old chiropractor went to Matagalpas. He treated approximately 100 patients each day: gunshot wounds; Bell's palsy; spina bifida; partial paralysis; sick babies; and people with decades of neck and back pain. He reported seeing many middle-aged women who complained of kidney pain, which after examination and urinalysis proved to be of biomechanical origin. Many women also suffered from lower spinal subluxations from all the bending from the waist they did while hand washing clothes, or from being overweight. Dr. Spunt was so impressed by the need of chiropractic care in this region, that he has decided to return next year.
Now that the value of chiropractic has clearly and undeniably been demonstrated to the medical doctors on this tour, it will be an even smoother relationship next year. If every chiropractor could spend five days with a medical doctor in a similar setting, it would create profound respect for our profession. Articulating to MDs what chiropractic can do often falls upon closed ears, but seeing what we do opens eyes.
There are over 250 missionary organizations and they'll have a convention in two years. I would like to organize a list of chiropractors that would be interested in short-term participating with medical teams in third would countries. Third world countries are a laboratory for all health disciplines to work together. If you want to volunteer for one week, please write me.
Mike Greenberg, D.C.
11633 San Vicente Blvd. #214
Los Angeles, CA 90049
