In the early 1990’s Patti was treated at the Nieper Clinic in Hannover, Germany.
Alternative vs traditional treatments for Multiple Sclerosis are always debatable. Yet the only point of view that mattered was that Patti left the US in a wheelchair and returned from Germany walking.
Nieper’s Calcium-EAP treatment had no better or worse results than conventional treatments, MS progressed.
Later in the 1990’s it was a pioneering trial in Germany of Avonex for progressive type Multiple Sclerosis that led to Patti’s approval by her medical insurance to try Avonex.
Eventually no better or worse than anything else, conventional or alternative, medical insurance pulled the plug on Avonex payments as MS progressed.
Previously I’ve mentioned a German company, cadKat, that ‘empowers’ accessibility with their EuroTrax balloon wheels.
In the bigger picture … While we are suddenly yelling at each other over health care reform, Germany has lived health care reform on an epic scale beginning with German Unity in 1990. Their answers may not be ours, but they have done a lot more than talk. Spending on health care consumes 10% of Germany’s gross domestic product contrasted to 16% in the US.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“I was in an American hospital's emergency room only once, … the first thing asked by the hospital staff wasn't how he was doing. It was how he intended to pay.
For me, as a German, this was a culture shock.”Multiple Sclerosis is a world wide challenge and no one country has a lock on solutions. Hope is always about looking outside your box.
For more information on Multiple Sclerosis in Germany: Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft.
Also …
Meine Familie lebte in die Amerikanische Siedlung von Bad Vilbel, Deutschland, zwischen 1963 bis 1965. (My family lived in an ‘American neighborhood’ of Bad Vilbel, Germany, between 1963 through 1965.)
In this technology age, to reminisce is only a click away.
Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...
I like that Eurotrax balloon wheels concept; might be easier to maneuver I would think
ReplyDeleteyou are right, Patrick; we need to stop talking and start acting and do something about health care; frustrating for so many people with so many different medical diagnoses and illnesses :(
betty
Thank you for sharing that information. I find it very interesting how different countries deal with healthcare. There has to be a better solution then what is going on in this world.
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