Supporting Health In Africa
Alison Pittendrigh, a homeopath in Kenya supported by SHEAF, was called to treat a patient one Sunday afternoon...
The patient was sweating and in agony. Something had bitten him. It started as a small itchy spot and within two weeks the flesh of his hand had been eaten away and his fingers were beginning to fall off. The tendons and bones were visible through the pus.
He had been living in the rough scrub between the main road and my house, and someone had told him that I may be able to help. He told me he had come to the coast to look for work; his home town was over 600 miles away.
In a similar incident I knew of, a witchdoctor had saved the hand and one finger and thumb. I decided the best thing was to give him the bus fare home (where he would be fed and looked after) some money for a decent meal while he was travelling and suggested he went to see a witchdoctor in his home area.
I gave him some remedies:
· Pyrogenium 200c, (truly bad meat here)
· Mercurius vivus 200c (eating away at the tissue)
· Calcarea sulphurica 30c (just to keep it all coming)
– enough for about three weeks. I also gave Syphillinum 200c (why did it happen to him?) to take weekly for four weeks.
I honestly never thought I would see him again and had no real expectation of a good result. I also took the photograph.
He returned months later and showed me his hand. There was only one small hole just at the base of his third finger which was still producing a small amount of pus.
I asked him if he had seen the witchdoctor? No.
Had he been to the hospital? No.
What, he only took the remedies?? Yes.
And he just went home? Yes.
I wondered if he was trying to flatter more money from me but he said he didn’t want
any money; he just wanted to thank me and to show me his hand. The pain went within
a couple of days and over three weeks his hand began to heal. There was still some
pain if he carried heavy items, and so I gave him some more Calc-
The arrows point to distinguishing features -
