A Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Here, I’d like to give a case, which may seem very strange and certainly doesn’t happen every day, about a young man who had fallen head-first off scaffolding some 16 feet up and suffered a severe traumatic brain injury.

Because of the accident, he had had 11 surgeries (!) to date, including several major head surgeries to alleviate the tremendous swelling and the intolerable intracranial pressure. To facilitate better drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid, a shunt had been placed to drain fluid from the brain into the abdominal cavity, as is often done in children with hydrocephalus.

This had only been moderately successful. Due to the pronounced swelling, the entire skullcap had been opened in three parts and completely removed to relieve pressure (and then preserved for a long time – approx. 7 weeks in a “refrigerator”), meaning the man’s brain was relatively freely accessible for all that time (of course, with the appropriate precautions, which we won’t go into any further at this point)!

Later the preserved skullcap was put back in place, but now there were problems with it growing together and healing. The bones couldn’t be fixed properly, so that there was a slight misalignment and visible ridges on the forehead, all of which resulted in another surgery. This time the shunt was removed from the abdominal cavity as it had often caused inflammation in the abdomen, and the skull bones were realigned and fixed to each other using wire. And so on and so forth …

It’s hard to imagine, but this went on like this a few times. Reopening the skull, replacing a shunt, another surgery to remove it, etc. Finally, the skullcap moved frequently and “got wedged” as the doctors described. Reopening, realignment, etc.

An eternal back and forth with no end in sight, it seemed. In any case, the brain pressure didn’t decrease whatsoever! Once back home, the young man fainted frequently, which made his life also quite dangerous. Just before he had come in for homeopathic treatment, he had been given another shunt, this time leading to the jugular vein in the throat, so that excess cerebrospinal fluid was no longer drained into the abdominal cavity.

In addition, there was still a clear ridge between the skull bones in the forehead, which was particularly obvious at night. “The skullcap seems to have shrunk a bit; it had been removed for a few weeks”, explained his mother. The back, however, seemed to fit well and had healed without any problems.

The X-ray showed the front of the skull graying, while the back of the head was white as usual. The question that the doctors now hotly debated was “whether the skullcap was decomposing in those areas” and whether it would be advised to use a titanium plate to compensate for it, or whether the body’s bony skullcap could even be completely replaced by a titanium skullcap. – Just imagining this kind of scenario makes me sick to my stomach!

Enough with the background to this severe traumatic brain injury. We agreed on Arnica and Hypericum first, both in the LM18 potency, 5 drops twice a day dissolved in one teaspoon of water, first to address the severe concussion and the resulting immense swelling, which was, in fact, part of the vagotonic healing stage.

Since the doctors had come to the conclusion that the bones would no longer grow together properly, we also discussed the possibility of having the skullcap surgically removed for the very last time, so that it could be realigned and fixed at the front of the forehead with screws, for example, and without a ridge (so far, it had only been held together by a wire at the top).

In this case, Nux vomica LM18 was to be taken for a few days post-surgery to discharge the anesthetic and medication. In addition, Arnica and Hypericum were also continued after the surgery, plus the tubercular remedy Calcium phosphoricum for improved bone and fracture healing.

Fortunately, a few months later, there was a lot of good news to report. The young man had agreed to the surgery and it had ultimately worked out well. The bones realigned satisfactorily and grew together well for the first time without complications! “The forehead is very smooth, like ironed. Screws were attached to the side to fix it in place. This surgery together with the homeopathic support had been the right decision”, exclaimed a visibly relieved and happy young man.

Since then, he had had fewer headaches and his healthy complexion had also returned. During a check-up at the hospital, the doctors were unanimous in their satisfaction; the three parts of the skullcap were firmly attached and immobile.

We agreed to continue Arnica and Hypericum a little while longer, gradually phasing them out, alternating every two days for about a month; Calcium phosporicum, on the other hand, was no longer necessary; it had done its job and the skull was now okay.

This is surely an inglorious example of surgery or rather an inglorious decision to try solving this case with surgery! If the brain pressure phenomena had been addressed gently and energetically right from the start, i.e. in line with classical homeopathy, much of this could have been avoided.

It is almost certain that not a single surgery, shunt, or opening of the skullcap would have been necessary, with all of their risks, let alone the consequences of not healing properly, something that was strongly affected by his miasmatic predispositions, after all. The two main rubrics of the Kent Repertory for this constellation are:

• Injuries of the head, after (5 remedies) and
• Concussion of brain (16 remedies).

These also apply to the most severe conditions and sequelae, as we have already seen in the case of the girl in a coma (“Coma after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in a Child”, see https://hpathy.com/clinical-cases/two-acute-cases-coma-after-severe-traumatic-brain-injury-in-a-child-black-adder-snake-bite/.

In addition, an anti-miasmatic remedy was used in this case, especially due to the lack of bone healing (rubric: Slow repair of broken bones).

Bibliography

• Allen, J. H., The Chronic Miasms, 1921, Reprint Edition 2006, B. Jain Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Dehli
• Grätz, Joachim-F., GENTLE MEDICINE – The True Causes of Disease, Healing, and Health, 2021, Balboa Press, Bloomington, USA
• Grätz, Joachim-F., Klassische Homöopathie für die junge Familie – Kinderwunsch, Schwangerschaftsbegleitung und Geburt, Kleinkindbetreuung, Entwicklungs¬stö¬rungen und Behinderungen, natürliche Entwicklung (Classical Homeopathy for the Young Family – Desire for Children, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Toddler Care, Developmental Disabilities and Impairments, Natural De-velopment),  2 Volumes, 3rd edition 2013/2016, Tisani Verlag, Oberhausen i. Obb.
• Grätz, Joachim-F., Sind Impfungen sinnvoll? – Ein Ratgeber aus der homöopathischen Praxis (Do vaccinations make sense? – A guide based on homeopathic practice), 9th edition, 2012, Tisani Verlag, Oberhausen i. Obb., Germany
• Grätz, Joachim-F., Questionnaire for your homoeopathic anti–miasmatic treatment, 2011, 32 pages, Tisani Verlag, Oberhausen i. Obb., Germany

Dr. Joachim-F. Grätz –  Oberhausen i. Obb.- Germany

About the Author:

See bio below this article.