Dr.-lng Joachim-F. Grätz, homeopath.
International Vaccination Newsletter Dec 1995

The following example, a case of vaccination damage with severe pathology, usually leading to a lifelong handicap, is exemplary for many other cases of vaccination damage. It is meant to encourage concerned parents so that they do not give up or resign, and for others to show that even with a damage as severe as in this case, the suffering can be soothed or even cured to regain full health.

It should be remembered that homeopathy is an individual approach and that a complete cure can never be predicted in general.

This case is about a child with West Syndrome, a kind of encephalopathy first described by the English doctor W.J. West, in an infant with the following triade of symptoms: 1. generalised petit mal epileptic fits, with focal and multofocal origin (BNS-cramps); 2. hypsarrhytia (diffuse mixed epileptic disturbances of EEG); 3. psychomotor development retardation. The prognosis is very unfavourable and basically determined by the severity of the encephalopathy.

Nick was nine months old. For about five months he suffered from epileptic convulsions, which were so severe that they were hardly relieved even by the strongest medicine. At the first consultation he appeared to be in a very bad condition. Until his fourth month of age Nick had been "a little sunshine", cheerful and happy. He had been very communicative from a very young age on. Also the control over his cervical muscles -- the first important step for a good postural development -- started very early in life. Within the first 4 weeks of life Nick grew as much as 10 cm (4 inches). Then, at the occasion of a so-called preventive

investigation, the seemingly unavoidable Diphtheria-, Tetanus- and Polio vaccines were administered, with very little consequences initially. But some days after this intervention the child became remarkably restless, and his sleep became worse and worse. From day 15 after the vaccination on, the convulsions started to take place. The first attack was preceded by an inconsolable nightly high peaked shrieking, the infallible sign of an encephalopathy. From that moment on, convulsions became common, regularly at first, at very defined hours, mostly after waking. The muscular control of the head had disappeared from the beginning of his fits. The convulsions were different in expression; at one time there was only a slight jerking of the shoulders (one sided of eventually on both sides), often accompanied by rolling or trembling of the eyes, then again loss of control over the head posture or lifting the left or right arm. Many times the head chucked forward, the arms jerked or became rigid. Sometimes there were just pupil reactions or staring of the eyes. Convulsions usually occurred in short runs. At the end or after a convulsion Nick would laugh or moan.

The diagnosis of the doctor in a well known pediatric ward was clear: West Syndrome, or BNS convulsions, psychomotoric retardation and hypsarrhytmia, with strongly pathological EEG, "as with strongly retarded children". The neurological investigation revealed a development retardation. Nick was prescribed an anti-epileptic drug and barbiturates, and that was all the doctors could do for him.

The homeopathic case taking revealed further elements which revealed a certain logic in the whole case, since "A healthy person does not become ill", Eichelberger said. The deeper meaning of this sentence is that every disease, especially the severe ones, is determined by a hereditary, "miasmatic" predominance from the side of the child, its parents or its ancestors. In other words, there are chronic basic disturbances (miasms) which act as a soil on which all further disease grows. These miasms are a ‘disease behind the disease’, and have to be eliminated. The active sycosis (which is one of the four miasms) was obvious from the first days of life on: flatulence and abdominal colics, lasting for months; sleeping pattern disturbed ("It always took a lot of trouble to get him into bed", "from the second month on he slept remarkably little"), agglutinated eyes ("Nick was born with agglutinated eyes"), coryza in sucklings. Nick always started easily, from noises behind him, but even from hearing running water. He also started often from sleep. Apart from that, Nick was very sensitive. "He is our mood barometer’, his mother said. For instance, when his therapy was discussed in hospital, he cried out loud, which convinced the mother not to give him the ACTH-hormone. This kind of ‘presentiment’ was often observed with him. Obvious with Nick were also the immense restlessness of arms and legs, different from the normal playful gestures. He also tended toward clammy feet, a little ‘cheesy’. The nails of his feet were slightly bulbed upward, his hands clenched to fists, thumbs turned inwards. At full moon Nick was extremely restless, mainly in the evening and at night. On top of that, just like his mother, he was afraid of the dark. His mother was quite sure about that, since if he woke up at night, he continued his steep only if some light was on. He preferred to lie on his belly. Only once he had a severe cold, and twice some degree of coryza, which at least once subsided remarkably well at the sea side. His face was pale, sometimes "as pale as a corpse". Over the root of his nose he had a so called ‘stork bite’.

His mother suffered from extreme nausea from the fourth month of pregnancy on. During the third month there was a hemorrhage, which was controlled by staying in bed and some magnesium supplements. Since then, she feared to loose her child. Her fear of dark, present since her own childhood, became quite extreme. The doctor discovered ‘insufficient hormone levels’, and decided to substitute these. During the last four weeks there was swelling of the legs, mainly the ankles, "as usual during my periods". Before this pregnancy, the mother had had a spontaneous abortion.

The family history showed on the mothers side infantile rheumatism, penicillin-allergy, disturbed menstruation, depression, a spontaneous abortion, cystitis, a pyelitis (inflammation of the kidney), frequent vaginitis, two times an inflammation of the breast; all of these were clear signs of a sycotic background.

His father was born after seven months of pregnancy. His mother said he never crawled around. Motoric development retarded. Frequent gastro-intestinal disturbances with nausea, vomiting, flatulence and diarrhea. Numbness in forearms and hands in the morning. Frequent severe flus, with out fever. Furthermore, the family history revealed tuberculosis, pneumonia, depression, migraine, kidney stones, alcoholism, ovarial cysts, diabetes, breast cancer, rheumatism, coxarthrosis.

The remedy which was prescribed was medorrhinum LM18, 1 drop in a spoonfull of water, every third day.

Results: about seven weeks after the beginning of the therapy I got the following message. Right after the first dose the boy got red spots between the eyebrows "just like his granny". In the afternoon the convulsions became more severe, and in the evening he showed a rash on his left cheek. After a few days he became increasingly limp. At the same time an obstinate milk crust developed on his scalp. After the second dose he became more restless. A rash now covered his entire face, like an eczema over his cheeks and eyes and like psoriasis over his chin. Both lasted for about four weeks. His dentition took a start. His convulsions lasted longer. The boy was more and more tired, but in the evening he became ever more awake and lively. Then a cold came up, with for the first time a copious discharge from his nose. Then the convulsions subsided, and for the first time in his life Nick had a real fever (38.5°C), a further encouraging sign of his development. After the third dose, his motor development enhanced. He could push himself up better, and the muscular control over his head became better. His craddle cap and eczema however increased. He also developed a slight diaper dermatitis. But Nick laughed much more and was once again a cheerful child.

These were obvious signs of an approaching cure, according to the homeopathic rules of Hering (‘A real cure is characterised by disappearance of the symptoms from top to bottom, from inside to outside and/or in reversed chronological order, from within to periphery (skin eruptions but improved neurological condition.’) After some more doses of the "magic drops", as his mother calls them, there was a temporary constipation, later on more fever, this time even higher than the first time, which is an excellent sign because it proves that the child escaped from his former immunological inertion. Conjunctivitis twice, once so badly that Nick could not open his eyes by himself any more. Suppuration of the umbilicus, "like when he was a baby", for a few days. All of these were very positive signs of recovery, like "rewinding his disease history" as homeopaths observe quite frequently.

At present, according to the mother, everything is gone. His skin is healthy again, his eyes all right, and after the cure of his persistent skin rash there is no convulsive activity left whatsover. Nick became a very normal child again and develops well. As if nothing ever happened. His mother is extremely happy. Of course, this did not end the chronic therapy in the sense of a homeopathic constitutional treatment, because the main goal of a homeopathic treatment must always be to eliminate the residual miasms. As to the vaccination damage, our mission is no doubt completed ‘summa cum laude’, because the side effects were effectively eliminated - the convulsions never recurred, not even after stopping the anti-epileptic drugs. Even so, there is more work to do with little Nick. All will be over only after the entire heriditary medical background is taken away, which can only be evaluated by actual symptoms. Only then (usually after about one to two years) is the treatment stopped. But one thing is for sure: Nick will never be vaccinated again!

J-F. Gratz, Haupstralbe 21,D-82319 Starnberg, Germany

Phone +49 8151 4876