I have permission to cross post this from Lyghtforce.
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Dear All,
Here's an interesting personal case description from a doctor on:
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/thesta...045&intcatid=1
The Standard 03/Apr/2003
Dicing with death
by Staff reporter
Medical workers were among the first to feel the full impact of the viral pneumonia outbreak, with some succumbing to the killer virus.
Now recovered, they plan to take a place on the frontline in an attempt to stop it from spreading.
One such person is Henry Chan, aged 34, an associate professor at the Chinese University's Department of Medicine and Therapeutics. This is how he saw those dark days in which his world all but collapsed.
March 7 -- I guided a group of third-year medical students through Unit 8A of the Prince of Wales Hospital. A patient suspected of contracting atypical pneumonia was receiving nebulizer treatment in the ward. We stayed for two hours.
_March 10 -- I felt unwell. I thought it was influenza. A colleague said several other medical workers at Unit 8A had high fever and flu symptoms. My intuition told me that something had gone wrong. In order not to infect my wife and 17-month daughter, I slept in the study room.
_March 11 -- The fever was still with me and my muscles were sore. I called in sick. In the evening I received a message asking me to return to the hospital. I found that about 20 of my colleagues had similar symptoms. We decided to stay for observation.
_March 12-20 -- The fever remained, as did the soreness, but I could walk about the ward. However, as more colleagues felt sick, I asked my family not to visit me. We kept in contact by phone.
_March 21 -- My sickness suddenly took a turn for the worst. I could neither move my body nor speak. My temperature was sky-high. I had difficulty in breathing and needed a respirator. My wife took the brave step of visiting me, but as she works for the Department of Health, she knew the risks and wore protective gear. Her first observation was that I had lost weight. I was conscious but unable to talk. It came to my mind that this could be the last time I would see her.
_March 22 -- I hovered between consciousness and unconsciousness. I knew that some of my colleagues had come to visit me. They insisted on staying to look after us. I was touched and I vowed that I would fight this thing. After a second dose of Ribavirin and steroids, my condition improved. After the third, my fever dropped and my breathing improved.
_A few days later -- I started recovering at a fast pace and the X-rays showed my lungs were not affected. I was still isolated but was sent to a sanatorium together with other recovering colleagues. I still felt very weak. The drug appeared to have affected my blood and I lost about 4.5 kilograms in weight. With nothing to do, I started wondering about the disease. We knew then that the first patients admitted to the Prince of Wales and Kwong Wah hospitals came from the mainland. And I kept asking myself why did that mainland medical professor visit Hong Kong for a wedding banquet, even when he knew he was unwell?
_March 30 -- Pure joy. I knew I would be discharged from hospital the next day and would see my home again after more than 20 days. Today I was interviewed by reporters about my experiences as a doctor and as a patient. I made a pledge that as soon as I was fully recovered, I would return to fight this virus, which I now hate so much. I also had time to reflect on just how dedicated our medical workers are.
_March 31 -- I returned home today. I donated some blood which I hope can save other patients. I aim to recover my strength as soon as possible so I can return to my work.
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Most characteristic symptoms in this case, in my opinion:
Soreness of muscles:
Generalities, pain, sore, muscles
Extremities, pain, influenza
"I could neither move nor speak":
Extremities, paralysis, stiffness, with
Extremities, stiffness, paralytic
"conscious but could not talk":
Mouth, speech, wanting
Generalities, weakness, aversion to talk, with
(Breathing impeded)
(Definite weight loss)
The extreme soreness of muscles with stiffness, the elevated CPK Creatinphosphokinase or Creatinkinase) that is reported in several sources, which is a strong indication for muscle damage (or for hemolysis), makes this symptom a characteristic one in SARS.
Therefore, I would focus on the group of remedies described in rubrics like "Extremities, pain, influenza". Eup-per comes to mind (as also confirmed by the French homoeopath F. Schmitt in the post from Melanie Grimes).
Causticum seems especially interesting because of the other symptoms.
Of course, if there's inflammation of the lungs (which was not the case in THIS case) other remedies will come to mind, too - such as Phos, Ars, Lyc, Lach.
Yet, we should take into account, that this illness is not as devastating as the 'normal' influenza. The morbidity is less, and mortality is probably similar.
The focus that has been put on this disease by the media is mainly because of two reasons:
- the etiological factor hasn't yet been defined for sure (a new Corona-virus being the most probably, but Paramyxovirus has been found as well, as has been a certain strain of Chlamydia) - conventional treatment hasn't been found for the severe form - in normal influenza, old and weakened individuals are the ones who are most at risk - while in this case, healthy individuals, neither too young nor too old) are succumbing to death.
Those 78 deaths that are reported till now worldwide in 2223 defined cases represent 3.5% mortality, which isn't a high mortality for epidemics.
Yet, from the allopathic point of view, a NEW virus (possibly/probably emerged as a virus strain borne/mutating from animal sources) always presents a new problem: because they don't have a strategy to fight it, until antibody sera and prophylactic vaccines are developed to fight it.
If a virus is able to mutate often, this strategy of control is bound to fail.
Yet, from a homoeopathic perspective, the name of the virus doesn't matter. It's important to follow the characteristic of the disease, (so it will be of interest, if the disease is spread via droplet infection, or even be transferred by excrements, as it is often the case in Coronavirus in animals), to get the symptoms (especially at the beginnings: if there are chills alternating with fever, if there is accompanying thirst etc).
But the case description above will give us already some precious hints.
All the best,
Gaby
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Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de
http://www.curantur.de
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