August 30, 2011 – Update on Gen. Bert

You may recall that General Bert took a tumble and while all the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men did not get into the act, two trauma surgeons, a helicopter airlift pilot and nurse and 6 days in the hospital later, he emerged on a walker with a much stiffer, swollen and difficult-to-move hip and thigh than he should have.

Why do I say that? Because despite their great lip service and lovely personal bedside manners, the doctors at Santiago’s famed (and very nicely managed) Clinica Alemana gave me a lot of ‘look ‘em straight in the eye when you lie’ nonsense about giving Bert the Vitamin C that he needed (50 G every 12 hour in an IV bag) but wound up giving him a ridiculous 10 G every 24 hours, or 1/20th the dose that he needed to prevent the pain and swelling of a broken hip and the following traumatic surgery.

I was told that there was no IV Vitamin C in Chile (ABSURD) and other fantastic nonsense. When I complained (loudly, you can be sure!), I was finally told that the truth was that the gerontologist who told me that he knew NOTHING about vitamins and minerals but that he knew they could not hurt anything, so why not do what I suggested was the one who wrote the order for a dose that Gen. Bert could have safely exceeded by MOUTH.

The result, of course, was that he had far more difficulty and movement restriction than he did 10 years ago when he did the same thing to his right thigh bone and hip. That happened in the US and my deadly serious threat to sue the surgeon worked like a charm – Gen. Bert got his 100 G per day of IV vitamin C.

Note: it is not the hip surgery that kills the elderly who suffer these fractures: it is the pain and immobility which restricts their motion and leads to complications, incarceration in nursing homes and, ultimately, death. All of which would not occur if enough Vitamin C were used!!!!

But WAIT! There’s more. Gen. Bert tends toward a very low blood pressure on his own. That is why salt is essential, and in pretty good quantities, too, for him to eat along with lots of water. He also lost a huge amount of blood during the accident and the surgery so his hematocrit was low – dangerously low. In fact, the recommendation of the doctors was to give him several transfusions. On his behalf, I refused. Why not give him iron, I said, and let the body create more hemoglobin, instead of exposing him to all the dangers of transfusions?

The doctors agreed and ordered an iron supplement by mouth. The hemoglobin started to crawl up and Gen. Bert was spared the transaction. But we all agreed that the supplement was critically important to his well-being at this point.

The iron supplement he was given in the hospital did not make it home with him so since last Friday he has been without iron supplements. He cannot eat red meat because he gets gout when he does, which is sad because he is an enthusiastic red meat sort of guy.

So no supplement, no meat, and not enough spinach to put in your left eye, organic or otherwise. And the robust and vigorous Gen. Bert began to fail.

I emailed the hospital: no response. I took a prescription they had given me “just in case” to the two pharmacies I can reach from the hotel we are staying in and showed it to them. In both cases the girls behind the counter looked at me blankly and told me that they do not have iron. NONSENSE!!

As the few days wore on, he became deathly pale, terribly weak, frightfully cold and could not stay awake for very long.

I was very worried and deeply angry with myself because I ALWAYS travel with my blood pressure cuff and stethoscope – Always, that is, until this time.

But, I said to myself, that is not a problem because today we are going to pay a nurse from the Clinica Alemana 22,000 Chilean Pesos (about $44 US) to change the dressing from the operation in a visit to the hotel. She will, I reasoned, have a stethoscope and cuff with her. She was his nurse in the hospital and she will see the change in him and help him get the support he needs, including the dietary supplement which could, literally, save his life.

His pulse was hard to find, weak and thready. His heart beat was irregular and his status was deteriorating. But she’ll be here with the scope and pressure cuff shortly.

NOT SO! She walked in, smiled, obviously did not look clinically at her patient, whom she had nursed when he was in the Clinic, changed his bandages, smiled again and left. Gen Bert was, in my clinical judgment, in grave danger of a stroke, a myocardial infarction (heart attack) or death.

Low blood pressure, low blood volume, not enough iron? Time for folk medicine, pure and simple.

I brought bags of salted nuts and potato chips, neither of which are health foods, and presented them to Gen. Bert with the instruction to eat all he could hold and drink as much water as he could.

I poured ¼ teaspoon of salt in the palm of his hand, told him to lap it up and drink water. I went to the nearby store and bought red meat, which he cannot eat, but which is a dense source of iron and protein, and made a soup with organic onions, mushrooms, garlic, plenty of salt and cooked up a broth that I gave him no option NOT to drink, despite the fact that it will most likely give him gout. I gave him colchicine, a very old remedy for gout, to prevent the development knowing that he may get it anyway.

But you don’t die from gout. You can die from lack of oxygen because of lack of iron!

And you know what? He pinked right up, over the several hours the above took. His arrhythmia went away and his heartbeat became normal again. Color returned to his skin and life returned to his eyes.

Now there is a good side to the story: I badgered the nurse into calling the Physical Therapist who was coming tonight anyway, into bringing the iron preparation he needed this evening. 20 little bottles of iron supplementation walked in the door when he arrived. And I was, of course, very appreciative, but also very apprehensive about what was in the process of happening: Gen. Bert was shutting down through lack of good planning and follow-through.

Why am I telling you this? Several reasons: first of all, if someone you care about is in hospital, they are in grave danger unless there is someone staying with the patient AT ALL TIMES running interference, reading labels, demanding, yes, demanding, to know what is happening to the patient and why. It does not matter whether the doctors and nurses like you. It matters whether you can protect the person in the hospital because they cannot.

Accept nothing. Question everything. Hospitals are dangerous places.

Second, Do not discard what you already know for what the doctors and nurses seem to know. The salt water I gave Gen. Bert increased the volume of his circulatory system, apparently increased his blood pressure and may have saved his life. It wasn’t medicine. It was folklore applied to a medical situation, rapidly becoming an emergency.

Third, Do not discard what you already do despite what the doctors and nurses tell you. Gen. Bert received 6 capfuls of Silver Sol Nano Solution by mouth per day. Hospitals are dirty places and the infections people get in hospitals kill nearly 100,000 people in the US alone. I was determined that Gen. Bert was not among them.

I told no one. I just gave it to him.

I continued to give him the nutritional powerhouse array of supplements he receives every day, but when no one was looking. I told no one. I just gave it to him.

Fourth, Do not believe in the omnipotence, competence or diligence of the medical staff. Sometimes your skepticism will be unwarranted, but, going back to tip Number 1, all kinds of mistakes occur day in, day out. And they can be lethal.

Food. There was nothing to heal with or get well on in a single meal of the Clinica. Bring in food that the patient will like and will appreciate and that you know is wholesome. Say it is for you. Pretend you are taking it home to your pet iguana. Whatever you need to say, say it. Whatever you need to do, do it. Just get decent, tasty, nutrient dense food into your loved one or friend. And get out of that hospital the very minute that you can.

More to follow.

Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima

PS: One more thing: I bought a stainless steel urinal for the General, called, in Spanish, a pavo masculinio, or male duck. It had three small holes in the body of it. When I called Diamed, the store that sold it to me, to ask them to replace it, that said that they did not have another one, that they did not care about my $45US, that they did not have to do anything about it and it was my bad luck.

So now we have a male duck with holes in it, but it is stainless steel!!! Tip number 5: take nothing for granted. REL