As I’ve been learning more and more throughout my health journey, I’ve realized that there are many areas in which we need to educate ourselves and also do a few things to prepare ourselves or our children for any emergency health crisis that may present.
Who Will Make Health Decisions if You Aren’t Able?
In the event that you are hospitalized, and potentially unconscious or incapacitated, who will make health decisions on your behalf? Have you ever thought about selecting a Power of Attorney for Health? If you don’t choose one now, it will be chosen for you when you don’t have the ability to choose. Selecting a Power of Attorney for Health doesn’t have to be scary or taboo. Rather, it is an empowering action. I realized that although I trust my parents and family to make the best decisions that they are able to make, I also acknowledge that they have not taken the time to educate themselves in depth regarding diet, chemicals in our water and the need for purification or filtration, supplementation, vaccines, vitamin C, cancer treatments, herbs, and many other topics fundamental to health and healing – especially when one is struggling to heal from a severe condition or accident. As I live in Wisconsin, I searched for the Power of Attorney for Health paperwork online and was able to find it easily. I will be selecting someone I trust and whom I know has experienced enough to know when to question the standard conventional medicine protocol, when to consult others, and when to make decisions. I suggest that everyone select a Power of Attorney for Health whom they trust to make informed decisions on their behalf.
Do you keep your emergency contact / Power of Attorney for Health in your wallet?
If the event of a serious accident or hospitalization, are you setting yourself up for success for the right person to be called (whomever you’ve selected as your Power of Attorney for Health?) My Great Aunt always kept a card in her wallet with a few emergency contacts, clearly and neatly written in her cursive hand. Again, to some this might seem like an unnecessary or even paranoid action to take. In my opinion, it is a completely reasonable and proactive action to take.
Do you know how to find the information to convince doctors to provide basic treatments that you or your loved ones should have?
In one of Suzanne Humphries’ brilliant presentations available on YouTube and Vimeo, she states that people often call her saying “my loved one is hospitalized with X, and I’ve asked the doctor to give high dose vitamin C, and they refuse, saying it’s dangerous or ineffective.” As I’ve learned from Suzanne, there is no condition that won’t be improved by high dose vitamin C, especially the most life-threatening conditions, like the ones listed in the following slide from her presentation:
This study referenced at the bottom left of the slide (PMID 24484547) proves that intravenous ascorbic acid (vitamin C) administered to patients with severe sepsis is not only safe, but beneficial. This study worked with three groups – a control group who received no vitamin C, a group who received low-dose intravenous vitamin C (50mg/kg/24 hours), and a group who received a higher dose of intravenous vitamin C (200mg/kg/24 hours). A high SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) score in the first 48 hours of critical illness/intensive care is a high indicator that you have a mortality rate of 50%. The patients who received low and higher dose of intravenous vitamin C both experienced rapid, significant drops in their SOFA score, increasing their chances of survival. The control group, who did receive any intravenous vitamin C, had no significant decrease in their SOFA score! The study says no patient in the low or higher dose experienced an adverse side effect. Suzanne believes this study should be enough to dissolve any doctor’s fear of being sued or ostracized for administering intravenous vitamin C.
If I’m plagued with an infection or sepsis or anything while in the hospital, I would want high dose intravenous and oral vitamin C to be administered first, before I am pumped with antibiotics that will weaken my immune system.
Suzanne suggests that we search for the study on the US National Library of Medicine, using the number 24484547, and that we print it and bring it to the doctor in order that they would administer high dose vitamin C to your loved one in need. As I imagine that scenario, I envision the unlikelihood that a doctor would actually heed the study and indeed administer the vitamin C; but you never know. We have to try everything in our power to help the ones we love at the times they need it most.
To learn more about how to treat minor and severe conditions with vitamin C, click here.
Are you aware of the vaccine exemption laws in your state?
Many times school officials or doctors talk about vaccines as if we have no choice — that must agree to receive them in order to go to school or to work in certain industries; however, most states have various types of exemptions available. It is important that we know our state laws so that we can confidently provide evidence and support for our choices. The National Vaccine Information Center has aggregated all of the state vaccine exemption laws so we can easily educate ourselves. If you decide to refuse vaccination, her is a form template you could use to keep with your Power of Attorney for Health paperwork, or share with your doctor, school, etc. – here is a longer more detailed template. Here is a template that could be used for communication/refusal when working with an employer.
How will you make sure your wishes are respected in the hospital or emergency room? And does your Power of Attorney know about various treatments or protocols you may or may not want?
In addition to printing out a copy of the vitamin C research explained above so that a doctor may be convinced to provide the treatment, it is important that we make list of treatments that we might want, and also a list of what we DON’T want, and provide both lists to the Power of Attorney for Health.
For the list of what you might NOT want…
I’ve heard several mothers say that their newborn was vaccinated despite asking the nurse not to do so, perhaps when the nurse was weighing or bathing the baby. Also beware of the shift change. The next nurse could lookout your charts, see the baby hasn’t yet received the vitamin K and Hepatitis B shot, and give the vaccines before you even know what happened. I’ve also heard mothers tell stories about emergency room staff vaccinating their child during a health crisis before the mother had a chance to give or deny permission, perhaps when the mother stepped away to call their husband, park the car, or attend to something for a moment. Even patients with severe kidney conditions are vaccinated on the day of admittance to the hospital as standard protocol, which has been shown to be dangerous, as Suzanne Humphries shares in this incredible video. Know that giving vaccinations is such a standard and automatic part of protocol that you have to be extremely clear and proactive about what you want to happen or not happen.
Consider providing your Power of Attorney for Health with a list of what you don’t want. If you are in a position to oversee the health of family members, make sure you have a list that you can easily access in times of emergencies and provide to hospital or emergency staff. When you review the list with the hospital staff, you might also considering asking them to sign the list acknowledging that they have seen and understood your wishes.
Your wishes may cover any number of things besides vaccination. In a childbirth situation you may want the doctor or nurse to NOT cut the umbilical cord until it has completely stopped pulsing (this is what I would want), or you may not want them to wash the baby until the baby has absorbed all of the vernix caseosa (white film on the baby’s skin).
For the list of what you MIGHT want…
First, the vitamin C protocol explained above! As Suzanne Humphries shows, it is helpful in almost all serious and minor health conditions.
In the event that a feeding tube is needed, wouldn’t you want your loved one who is struggling to survive to be supported with the nutrition coming in? You might want to choose Liquid Hope instead of the standard feeding tube formula.
If you or a loved one experiences a spinal cord injury, it is important to know about innovative techniques to strive for the best outcome. In this Milwaukee Magazine article, Froedtert Medical College neurosurgeon Shekar Kurpad describes the stem cell approach which helps spinal cord injury patients to regain function in more areas of the body. The article talks about using embryonic stem cells, which I am opposed to as a right-to-life issue; however, there are other stem cells now available that do not come from aborted babies (namely, adipose stem cells from the patient’s own body). In Kurpad’s approach, they also genetically engineer the stem cells (which I personally wouldn’t want), to make myelin. Why does this work?
According to Kurpad: “…not every cell dies. Some are simply dormant. Nerve cells conduct electrical impulses from the brain to the part of the body that wants to move. And the speed of the conduction is made possible by the insulation that these nerve cells have in the spinal cord, which is provided by a myelin sheath. After an injury, some of the cells lose their insulation. They are alive, but no longer useful in transmitting the impulses. The theory behind the study is that we’re injecting cells into the substance of spinal cord, so the dormant nerve cells can remyelinate and once again conduct electricity.”
Kurpad says that to address a spinal cord injury and the myelin sheath issue, that there is “a brief window of time for success, not immediately following the injury, because the inflammation is too great, but also not much more than a month, because the body forms scar tissue around the injury, making the cells impossible to reach.
“Lucas went from a C5-6 to a C7-8 in less than 90 days, which almost never happens. What does that mean?” says Kurpad. “He wanted to be a computer programmer. And now he can because he can use his fingers, hold a cup, hold a straw. He has the spine motor control that makes us human. You can play an instrument, for example. The other thing, your triceps start to work with C7, which means you can transfer yourself. This is the difference between getting pushed around by someone and doing it yourself.”
I’m not endorsing Kurpad’s genetically-engineered approach, but I do think stem cells are an interesting quickly-advancing medical option that should be considered, even for other types of injuries, conditions and diseases. Dr Neil Riordan co-founded the Stem Cell Institute in Panama where they treat spinal cord injuries, and I don’t think they genetically modify the cells. You can view testimonials here, and information here. Dr. Riordan writes in his book Stem Cell Therapy: A Rising Tide, “there is incredible hope, particularly if we can get ot the patients before signifciant scar tissue has had a chnace to form, and if we can get htem working with a physical therpapist right away”. At minimum, they work toward regaining control of bladder function, and some walk again. At the Stem Cell Institute, they use cells blood from umbilical cords from healthy live births, as well as the after birth placenta.
Insurance
We all spend money on insurance policies — health insurance, dental insurance, car insurance, home insurance, and even life insurance.
Think of the things I have written about in this post as free insurance. All of the best insurance policies in the world will do you no good if you don’t have wealth – and wealth is health in body and spirit!
Make Sure Everyone in your Family is on the Same Page
We need to be informed, and make sure that our family members are aware of what needs to be done in an emergency health situation. Everyone should know — who is the Power of Attorney for Health.
Be Confident!
There are many things to consider. Feel empowered. Just because I am not a doctor, and you are not a doctor or Ph.D., doesn’t mean that we are dumb or unable to make important health decisions that may or may not be aligned with the doctor or hospital’s beliefs or protocols. Educate yourself, be confident, and be prepared!
Impressions of a Holobiont 
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