Chiropractic Miracles Out of Africa
by: Warren Bruhl, DC, DICCP
Editor’s Note: Do you have a story about how you have impacted your community, another area of our country, or those in need around the world? Please submit them to ics@ilchiro.org/ today for future publication consideration.
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Chiropractic Miracles Out of Africa
I have been an Illinois Chiropractic Society member since I first began practice in the Chicagoland area in 1986. At that time I was in active practice and had one of the most successful pediatric family practices in the area. Seeing families and children was always a thrill for me. The small children would come in with smiles, laughter, and anticipation for their turn on the adjusting table. Always a challenge and incredibly rewarding, providing chiropractic care to children and being ready for the unexpected was the preparation I needed to now embark and provide the Maasai of East Africa with the healing miracles of chiropractic care.
Selling my practice in 2011, I felt a calling to serve people in the most under-resourced parts of the world, because chiropractic is needed desperately in these places but is often unavailable. Certainly, in East Africa where I travel frequently, there are no chiropractors. In fact, there are often no doctors! People are without basic healthcare, education, and in some cases even enough food or water to survive. However, even in the midst of incredible odds against survival, they are able to adapt and remain resolute in their will to survive and thrive.
In 2012, I began traveling to a remote area of Kenya called the “Kimana Rift Valley” to provide chiropractic care, education, and develop Little League Baseball. Since chiropractic and baseball were entirely new to the Kenyans, I needed to provide quite a bit of education so they could enjoy the benefits of chiropractic and the joy of playing baseball. Now, almost three years later and several trips since that original visit, I’ve seen amazing progress among the Maasai of this region. Their welcome embrace of chiropractic and our game of baseball has been nothing short of amazing.
On my most recent trip in January, I took along a team of seven to work alongside an osteopathic and medical team of twenty-five. We visited remote villages called “bomas” deep inside the Amboseli National Park and cared for thousands of people. Patients from only a few days of age to 96 came in with a host of conditions and problems, all seeking a healthier life and way to alleviate the suffering in their body. Remarkably, some of the most profound healing occurred in ways that even amazed our team.
Several of the examples are notable. A forty-one-year-old man named Jeffrey, who had contracted a tuberculosis spinal infection that left him partially or nearly paralyzed in his legs, came to see us in a wheelchair His spine was rigid and his pain levels were immense when I examined him. However, his willingness to be helped was strong, and he allowed me to provide careful and specific care to alleviate the pressure on his spinal nerves caused by his spinal condition.
Although I was only able to see Jeffrey twice before we had to leave Kenya, after the second adjustment, HE WALKED! Though previously weak and unable to stand on his own from the months he had spent in the wheelchair, his body now had a power restored with chiropractic being the treatment that had made the difference. And Jeffrey was not the only miracle; others also occurred as my team and I provided the basic principles of healing with chiropractic. We are now working on developing a chiropractic center in Kenya and are looking for doctors and people interested in teaming up with us. If you’d like to learn more about our work in Kenya, contact me at dr.bruhl@dreamweavear911.org. You can also visit our website at www.dreamweaver911.org
