A Case of Neonatal Tetanus Cured by Homeopathy

An infant 12 days old was brought to my clinic by his parents on 3rd July 2001. Muscle rigidity, facial grimacing, muscle spasms and inability to suck his mother’s breast were symptoms that started to appear when the baby was 5 days old.  At 8 days old he was admitted to District Hospital, where he was diagnosed with neonatal tetanus. (29th June 2001). In our countryside villages some of the normal deliveries take place at home without proper hygiene and education that might be the cause of infection when the umbilical cord was cut at birth. This child was diagnosed clinically at district hospital.

The baby was treated in hospital for 4 days but they found no improvement. Rather, the patient deteriorated so the attending doctors referred him to a teaching institute in Kolkata for better management.  However, on the advice of friends the parents decided to try homeopathy and brought the patient directly from hospital to my clinic on 3rd July 2001.

I recorded the following symptoms. He had rigidity of muscles, became more rigid, bending backward like a ‘bow’ and stiff when anyone touched his body. Facial grimaces, muscle spasms, difficulty in swallowing; and stoppage of breastfeeding as he couldn’t suck his mother’s breast.

His mother tried to feed him by dripping collected breast milk drop by drop on his mouth, but when the drops fell on his mouth, spasm began and the baby hardly swallowed the milk.

I found only one peculiar symptom, the patient became more rigid and stiff when touched by anyone, so I took this rubric in Phatak’s repertory: ‘convulsion or spasm touched, when’ with only Cicuta v. listed.

I prescribed cicuta virosa 30/4 doses to be taken 3 hourly followed by placebo for 7 days.

9th July 2001: According to the parents there was slight improvement but I  couldn’t detect any difference except the baby could swallow with difficulty some more collected breast milk.  I prescribed cicuta virosa 200/4 doses and placebo for 7 days.

22nd July 2001: The patient improved to the point that he could suck mother’s breast slowly. Stiffness was there but in less intensity. Cicuta vir. 200/4 doses and placebo for 7 days.

29th July 200: The patient was better in every respect so I prescribed only placebo for 7 days. In this way I completed his treatment on 15th Sep 2001.

Once I had to prescribe Sambucus 30 as he had coryza and couldn’t suck his mother’s breast due to obstruction of his nose. No other medicine was needed. Cicuta cured the patient completely.

Most infants who get the disease die but in this case the selected medicine Cicuta brought the baby from the grave to the cradle. He is healthy and doing fine to this day.