It’s not every day I post a review a patient left for another osteopathic physician. This story, however, is beyond worthy of sharing because many of us need to be reminded about the potential power of what osteopathy can accomplish. Stephen Myles Davidson, DO is my mentor and colleague. His osteopathic treatments are at another level than anyone else I have met.
I heard about it many months ago while talking to him, but now the patient has also shared her story. So often, I read about so many osteopaths and other organizations from around the world who spend their time focusing on what we “can’t” do and telling everyone about it. Dr. Davidson, on the other hand, taught me how to push forward and and ask “how can we?”
When Nicolette came to Dr. Davidson, she was 29 weeks pregnant. It was suspected that she was exposed to the Zika virus, which causes microcephaly. Microcephaly is a potentially deadly malformation where the head and brain do not develop to their normal size. Sometimes parts of the brain don’t grow at all and survivors often have major complications.1
At that point, her unborn child’s head was at the 2nd percentile and shown no signs of growth for 9 weeks. For any parent or potential parent, this would be highly distressing. So Nicolette went to five doctors. All basically told her the same thing: “There is no hope. If her child did survive the birth, the child would have severe deformities and disabilities.”
I do not know how or why Nicolette ended up at Dr. Davidson’s office, but she sought his help. Perhaps, like many people who come to osteopathic physicians, it was her last resort. Anyone who has been treated by Dr. Davidson knows it’s a unique experience unlike any other. He humbly approaches patients and treats them in a way where they don’t understand what happened, but they know they feel better afterwards.
I remember spending time at his office as a student while he treated a pregnant woman. After treating the mom, he started working on the child in utero. It was the first time I had seen that and it really blew me away that that was even possible.
Three weeks after the treatment, the head head size for Nicolette’s unborn child was at the 10th percentile! By the time her child was born about 11 weeks after initially going to Dr. Davidson, her child’s head was in the 43rd percentile. Not only did her child survive, her child was born without any “severe deformities or disabilities.”
It can be easy to just say it was just a coincidence or that it was the margin of error on the equipment. It can be easy to conveniently turn a blind eye to the idea that the osteopathic treatment had anything to do with this. Do I think this was from Dr. Davidson’s treatment? Absolutely.
This is the doctor who about a year after treating a Parkinson’s patient, the patient’s neurologist said that his diagnosis must have been wrong because the patient’s symptoms were gone. This is the doctor day in and day out was doing what is considered the impossible and reversing scoliosis in patients. This sort of thing is the norm in his practice.
Properly applied osteopathic principles are powerful and I for one will always keep asking “how can we?” and push forward.
1 https://www.cdc.gov/zika/hc-providers/infants-children/zika-syndrome-birth-defects.html