View Jessie’s testimonial here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/9568235/jessie-testimonial.mp4
Jessie was in his early 20’s when he became paralyzed from the neck down. He fractured a bone in his upper neck and another bone in his thoracic spine. He spent 6 months in a HALO brace in the hospital. During his stay, he could no longer feel his body, other than a burning pain which covered his legs, torso and left arm, sparing only his right arm and chest. Jessie came to see me about 2 years after his accident hearing about the laser treatments I was offering. He originally only wanted to see if laser would help with his pain.
We did see some pain reduction, but continued to see intermittent flare ups of his pain and eventually medications gave him further relief. What was the most amazing thing happened on his 3rd visit. After completing his laser therapy over his neck and upper back, I excused myself to the rest room while his mother and his nurse strapped him back into his chair and prepared him for his departure.
Upon reentering the room they excitedly said you have to see his thumb Dr. Wheeler! I asked what was wrong with his thumb, recalling that his hands were usually swollen and somewhat purplish in color. They said his thumb is moving. Sure enough as can be seen on the video he was moving his thumb in a twitch like movement. I asked him, “are you moving it or is it moving on its own?” He said, “well it is kind of like watching water boil. Does it boil on its own whether you watch or not or are you making it boil?”
I recall on his 5th visit that his mother had put on his head restraint and he stated feeling something on his ear. He had long hair back then. His mother pushed back the hair over his right ear, but he said no, it’s on my left ear. On his left ear was the string hanging down from his restraint. She pushed it out of the way, but they commented that he had not been able to feel his left ear since the accident.
On subsequent visits we continued to retest his senses of feeling, light touch, pin prick, hot and cold, his reflexes ect…We found that all of his fingers eventually started moving, but to date only his thumbs have voluntary movement. He has regained feeling to his left ear, top and sides of his head and even deep pressure sensation to his chest and upper back.
His reflexes returned to his triceps within the first 2 months of care and all of his reflexes now work on his right arm. Additionally he now has normal reflexes of his knee caps, or patellar reflexes. We could stroke a pinwheel over his left thumb, or left big toe and they would pull away from the stimulus. Additionally I could later use the pinwheel under the soles of his feet and his toes would curl under just like a normal patient’s toes. The nurses as well as his mother all testified that he had not had any reflexes, finger movement or these areas of sensation since the accident, and there had been no new medical intervention from the time I started seeing him and these changes other than the laser treatments. I wish we could have seen Jessie walk out of his chair, but the changes we did see were thrilling to say the least and may be a strong enough case study to encourage other doctors and patients to try laser therapy.
There has been a recent study at Virginia Tech where they severed the spinal cords of 20 rats after numbering and timing the speeds of the rats through a maze. 10 rats received no treatment and of course never walked again. The other 10 rats received 2 weeks of pulsed laser treatments similar to the laser I use. All 10 of these laser treated rats walked again! They were 50% slower than before, but after an additional 6 weeks of care they had normal speeds.
Another study has shown that laser therapy can heal the severed sciatic nerves in rats.
There are also early studies with laser therapy and treating various cancers and the early studies are showing some success. More studies and time will be needed. There are studies planned to combine laser therapy and stem cells for spinal cord injuries and I am excited to see these studies. There has been a study of cerebral palsy children and very positive findings for the spasms and other problems these children faced. This study was performed only in the past 2 years.
I found on another doctor’s website, where he treated 3 patients that who were paralyzed with laser and all 3 patients experienced improved sensation, but one surprised his mother by walking with a walker to her door on mother’s day.
Jessie has since moved to Washington to be near larger medical centers and hopefully will be able to participate in future studies involving stem cells, laser/stem cell combinations or new electrical implants which are all showing the potential to help these individuals regain freedom of movement again. If you would like to make a donation to Jessie towards his care, please let me know and I can put you in contact with him or his mother.
