It was a beautiful near perfect day. A boy by the name of Steven was riding his bike along with two of his friends, a girl named Alice and another boy. The smell in the air stamped the day with a peculiar odor. The trio passed through the comforting shades of residential streets into the sun beaten roads that spill into the overcrowded beaches. Taking a shortcut down an empty construction site, they felt the sea breeze against their faces as they hurried to reach the water. Quickly tired from the rush, the trio stopped for a small, momentary break. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a car speeding through the supposed empty lot was heading straight towards them. Steven, with seconds to spare pushed Alice out of the way of the car and took the hit to save her. The car, which was later discovered to have been going over 55 mph smashed against Steven. Upon impact, Steven flew into the air and smashed the left side of his head against a concrete pole and fell to the ground. This moment, lasted forever. The other boy, quickly rushed over to Steven as did Alice to check their friend. Steven felt no pain. The shock of the accident immediately sent him into a state of numbness. His body was practically destroyed. Alice, crying over the body of her friend, thanked him over and over for his sacrifice. The other boy called the 911 and pleaded for help. Steven smiled and kept asking Alice if she was okay. Eventually, Steven closed his eyes and the world he knew and loved, disappeared.
On the way to the hospital he died twice.
Steven was taken to the trauma center of a Hospital, in which he had the second highest number of tubes (10) inserted within a human body and survived, the leader having 11 for the purposes of draining, feeding and respiration. During his subsequent 9-month coma, he received slight physical therapy at the persistence of his mother, who found herself visiting her son everyday. The Doctors wrote him off and moved on, but his mother did not. Her patience brought her to see her son emerge from the coma. As bittersweet poetry goes, Steven immediately asked if Alice was safe, not knowing how much time had truly passed. Steven’s mother, overjoyed to see her son’s eyes open once again, knew that the hardest part was still ahead of him. The moment of joy transitioned into a dark new reality, from what he had remembered. His friend Alice, tired of waiting for Steven to wake up, moved away and forgot about him. The other boy did the same. If it weren’t for his mother, the world would have seemingly forgotten the heroic actions of this boy. Steven had lost the ability to stand or walk. In addition, he lost his basic gross and fine motor skills from the left side of his body, experienced atrophy, memory loss, constant tremors, moodiness, depression, and other difficulties associated with overall brain damage. Steven had reached the proverbial rock bottom and only had the long, desolate road of recovery ahead of him.
Steven’s road to recovery had many obstructions. The first and most powerful obstacle was the very healthcare system that had brought him back to life. Typically, traditional western Hospitals are dominated by a male modality and philosophy. This method consists of a rough and detached mentality that deliberately relies on the techniques of hunting the problem, cutting, and extraction of the problem. Steven went through a series of different Doctors during this ordeal. Just to name a few, he saw a Podiatric Surgeon, Neurologist, Orthopedic Surgeon, Family Primary Care Physicians and many others. All who diagnosed Steven concurred that he had reached maximum medical improvement.
Early in our recorded history, there was man and woman. The need to survive through the consumption of the things around us was dominant. Men, were responsible for exploring the world around them. As men explored, they hunted and extracted their prey from the natural world in order to bring the game back to their villages to consume. Man kills and dominates nature. This practice of hunting and extracting never really stopped for men, it simply evolved. The hunter-extraction methods were adapted to mostly all industries in which man is involved. We can see heavy practice of these methods within the western medical industry. There is a patient expressing symptoms, the Doctor addresses the symptoms and hunts down the infection or the cause of the symptom. From there, the cause of whatever ails the patient is extracted, burnt, cut out and blasted away through the use of pills, injections or surgery. The male modality of healthcare does not truly care for the patient itself. It simply cares for the self-serving achievement of the conquest. If the Doctor is successful, then he/she is praised in some fashion. If the Doctor fails, then he/she denounces the patient as incurable. The male modality is cold and uncaring. It does not express the emotions of the heart. Take for instance something called bedside manners. In the case study of Steven and his accident, the mother expressed that the bedside manners of some of the Doctor’s were poor, as they constantly spoke about him in third person and often making statement about how he would never recover. A Doctor in western society is placed on a pretty high authoritative level. Usually, most think that the Doctor’s words are final. With this being the case, wouldn’t the most important and critical factor in recovery be the bedside manner of the physician? Think about this through the eyes of a child. You develop a cold and begin to feel horrible. Dad walks in the room and tells you to buckle up and sweat it out, while mom brings you a cup of hot soup, brushes your hair and hugs you. Dad leaves to work and mom stays with you throughout the day to make sure you get better.
A typical dad simply might not get it. The child, much like the patient needs attention. They need to be supported and reinforced, not reprimanded and broken down.
Steven, was reprimanded and broken down. Throughout his time in the hospital, he was told that he would never walk again and would live the rest of his life partially alive so to speak. The bedside manner expressed by the Doctors towards Steven psychologically impacted him in ways that the Doctors themselves would never know. Their words and lack of support were planted within Steven’s mind and began to sprout roots. Steven constantly expressed to his mom and his physical therapists that he would never be able to walk or be normal. When asked where he got these ideas from, he responded that the Doctors told him so and that they were always right.
Seven years later, Steven’s toes began curling up due to lack of movement, giving him great discomfort in his legs and feet. Steven’s Podiatric surgeon proposed to make multiple slices in his Achilles tendon hoping to achieve a greater range in motion and insert steel rods into his toes in order to permanently straighten them out.
Before Steven’s proposed operation, there were some sampled concerns over his deepening state of depression. He was then referred over to Dr. Justin Newman of the Banyan Institutes, a licensed physician who specializes in holistic healthcare, using methods such as acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dr. Newman, proposed that through the use of acupuncture and other holistic techniques, he could not only improve Steven’s mental state, but also help with the overall circulation of Steven’s body. At this point, Dr. Newman was the only one who told Steven that there was hope. Most of the sessions with Steven involved conversations about daily things, like television, world events, and wrestling, in order to focus on other aspects and not just on the problem. During Steven’s treatments with Dr. Newman, a startling thing began to happen. Not only was Steven’s mental state improving, but his physical body was also recovering as well. To note, the method that was initiated was a female modality. It was a caring engagement filled with possibilities, rather than the male modality used throughout his stay at the hospitals that all led to cold dead ends.
Early in our recorded history, there was man and woman. The need to survive through the consumption of the things around us was dominant. Women, were responsible for the care of the young and the maintenance of the village. As women harvested and cared for the natural world around them, they established a harmonious understanding with nature and it’s inhabitants. The job of women was to create life through birth and nurture the world that men explored. The 10-months of pregnancy that a woman encounters, gives her a particular intuitive respect for life as she practices patience and understanding of not only her body, but of the life she now carries within her. This caregiver method, much like its counterpart, also evolved and found a restful place within the various industries of the modern world. We can see the practice of these methods within the western medical industry through its nurses.
For example, there is a patient expressing a symptom. While the Doctor hunts down the symptom through pre-formulated systematic methods, the nurse, which is a role that fundamentally exercises the thematics of the female modality, engages the patient in conversation and stays with the patient long after the Doctor leaves the hospital. The female modality is warm and caring. However, because the nurse is not seen as authoritative as the Doctor, many of the nurse’s efforts are often times crushed by the Doctor’s diagnoses of the patient. The female modality is essential to proper recovery. Once again. think about this through the eyes of a child. You develop a cold and begin to feel horrible. Who would you want to care for you?
Seven years after Steven’s accident and of being treated under the male modality of healthcare, Steven began treatment under a female modality of healthcare. Steven’s treatment while under the care of the Banyan staff was conducted in parts. The first area of focus was to stabilize his mental health and reduce the tremors he was experiencing. After that, the treatments focused on Steven’s core (center of his abdomen) in order to build strength enough for him to stand. Though western Doctors concluded that Steven would never walk or stand again, Dr. Newman felt otherwise. Within a two-year span, of just being treated with Acupuncture, Steven was able to stand and take few steps, an amazing feat by any measure considering his prognosis indicated that he would never walk or stand again. Now three years into his treatment, Dr. Newman and myself, have been seeing Steven on a weekly basis. His ability to stand and walk has greatly improved. Currently, the focus of his treatment is to establish his own independent living skills. He was 16-years of age when the accident occurred and left him with a lack of basic gross and fine motor skills on his left side, atrophy, memory loss, tremors, moodiness, depression and severe brain damage. For the first seven years of his recovery process under the male modality of healthcare there was simply no real recovery. Seven years after the accident he was introduced to the Banyan Institutes offering a female modality of healthcare where a true sense of recovery took place. Barely under 3-years of treatment at the Banyan, Steven had regained his ability to stand and walk, regained his basic motor functions on his left side, improved his memory, reduced the tremors, and established solid sense of humor towards life. My work with Steven under the methodology of Meditative Therapy, accessed the roots of the accident. Why he thought he would never walk again and why? Reassessing these prescribed determinations, is key to a full recovery for Steven. In earlier sessions, Steven was unable to visualize himself walking, standing or running. After about one-month, he was able to see himself walking, running and standing. Since he began to believe this possible reality in his mind, his actual standing and walking strengthened by leaps and bounds. This is similar to the approach taken by professional athletes who for example, visualize the perfect dive, the perfect free throw, or that proverbial hole-in-one. The brain and nervous system do not distinguish between actual walking and imagined walking, it simply responds accordingly.
It is important to understand what truly happened in Steven’s case and the modalities used and how they affected his recovery process. Firstly, a male modality is a system much like the female modality is. It has nothing to do with actual gender other than the origin of the modality. A woman Doctor is as prone to follow a male modality of healthcare as much as a man. It stems from the classical training given to these people throughout their education. As say a male nurse is more inclined to a female modality of healthcare as much as a woman is. It’s all in the education prior to the actual practice. In Steven’s case, he was exposed to the cold hard world of textual fact, which by default is limited by logic. It is heartless and void of emotion. Steven was hit by a car and smashed against a concrete post. The Doctors under this particular belief structure saw the hard reality in front of them and wrote him off as never being able to fully recovering. They immediately limited Steven through their own belief and educational structure. When Steven was introduced to the Banyan, he was also introduced to the first set of people that told him there was hope. It is not that one modality of healthcare is better than the other. It is the attitude that makes the difference. The Banyan told Steven “yes”, while the hospital’s told Steven “no”. One limited him while the encouraged him to spread his wings and fly. That is the main reason why Steven was able to recover while under the Banyan’s care. Other reasons are attributed to the practices of the expressed modalities. The male modality exercised within the hospitals are invasive and uncaring, while the female modality is non-invasive. The proof is in the actions conducted while Steven was recovering. Just taking the example of the Podiatric surgeon that wanted to slice up Steven’s Achilles tendon and install steel rods to straighten out his feet while still embracing his limitation to never stand again, versus a series of minimally invasive. Acupuncture needles that ultimately enabled him to stand and later walk. Though it is hard to see Steven’s perspective on the matter, one can remotely access that one procedure might be more uncomfortable than the other. One has an immediate outcome (steel rods) while the other is based on patience and the will of the patient.
I propose a marriage of both modalities. Much like the concepts of Yin and Yang that rightfully declare balance of all things, the same goes for the male and female modalities of healthcare. When, Steven was hit by the car ten years ago, Acupuncture needles would have done very little in his favor. The need to enter a western healthcare facility was unavoidable. There, he was reconstructed so to speak. However, the limitations the Doctors placed on him were a negative note to his recovery process. By the time I was able to see Steven under the practice of Meditative Therapy, he had heard the word “no” too many times. The amount of time it took to uncover the possibility of “yes” took a long time, and in many respects is still a focal point in Steven’s recovery process. What if Steven would have been told yes from the very beginning? Perhaps instead of ten years, he would regain his ability to stand and walk in five years.
What if Steven was never introduced to the Banyan Institutes and their Holistic methods based on a female modality? What would have happened to Steven at that point? It is important to view Steven’s case in particular with “what ifs”. Within the care of the male-based modality of western healthcare, it can be concluded that Steven would not have made as much progress, if any at all. He would have never walked or let alone stand. Steven would have endured countless of surgeries not limited to inserting steel rods in his toes to keep them perpetually straight. A marriage between male and female modalities within the healthcare industry is necessary to guard against the potential “what ifs”, to secure that both patients such as Steven and future cases are handled properly and not simply thrown into the air for chance to care them.
Endnotes
Newman, Dr. Justin. Escandon, Robert J. “Banyan Medical Archives.” 2007 - 2009.
Dr. Joe Holland. “Male and Female Modalities in Healthcare.” (lecture on male and
female modalities, Miami, Florida, 2009).
Perkins, Steven. Personal INTERVIEW. 5th November 2009.
