Clinical Cases

Five HIV Cases from Asha Daan

Written by Zubin Dehmeri

Dr. Dehmeri presents 5 HIV cases of destitute women brought to Asha Daan Clinic. Often he must prescribe on very few symptoms. Asha Daan is a charity clinic in Mumbai founded by Mother Theresa and the Missionaries of Charity.

Case 1:  GP

A 40 year old female, sero-positive was brought to Asha Daan 1 year ago. She had been lying on the streets of Mumbai. She was having headaches on right side since 5-6 months.

Physical generals:

Appetite: good

Thirst:  increased for large quantities of water.

Craving: tomatoes, radish, bitter

Sleep: good; Urine: normal; Stool: normal

Mind:

She had been abandoned by her family. Her husband was very abusive and used to beat her up. She has 3 daughters and 1 son. She used to work in the fields, but her husband never worked, and was alcoholic.  She does not remember exactly but, said she had become insane. She was lying on streets, was having diarrhoea, fever and also had injured her head after a fall. She gets angry when someone taunts her for not working and may then become abusive. Dreams of dead persons, as if they were holding her tight in her sleep. She feels shy when narrating her symptoms and covers her face while talking. She hates her husband, does not want to think about him. Repeatedly kept on saying that she completely hates her husband. She herself when angry, speaks abusive words. Weeps when talking about her past events.

Date: 26/04/2008

Stramonium 200 single dose was given by me after repertorising the case.

Date: 18/05/2008

She had episode of fever with chills since 4-5 days. There was constant nausea sensation, expectoration yellow, with bitter taste in mouth. Tongue was clean. Ipecac 200, 3 pills every 6 hours given for acute episode of fever for 4 days.

Date: 25/5/2008

She was much better with Ipecac 200. No fever, no vomiting. Stramonium 200 single dose was repeated.

Date: 15/06/2008

Again she was complaining of head pain on right side. Otherwise all her generals were normal. Stramonium 200 single dose given.

Date: 22/06/2008

Much better this time. Not having head pain, mentally also more cheerful.

After this she is on placebo and I repeated Stramonium 200, single dose whenever there was aggravation of her symptoms.

 

Case 2: JL

36 year old Christian lady was brought to Asha Daan for treatment, as her family could not afford her treatment for HIV. She was diagnosed to have HIV in 2005. Husband was also sero-positive. She does not have any physical complaints. She married in 2005 and her husband died within 3 months. She was forcefully made to marry by her brothers. Previous to this marriage, her engagement broke once and after this incident she never really wanted to get married. She was brought to Asha Daan for treatment by in-laws. She keeps on thinking why she got married to get this sort of illness. She says it would have been so much better if she would have stayed with her parents and not got married. She is very much attached emotionally to her 2 brothers. She is very mild by nature, does not like quarrels and desires harmony. She studied till 7th standard in school in Orissa. Her father died when she was 2 years old. She likes working. She is very caring and   took care of her mother during her last days for 9 months when she was bed-ridden. She had to do lot of work even as a child. Anxiety about her health and kept saying “Why did I have to get this illness”. Does not like people who use abusive language while talking.

Date: 20/04/2008

Physical generals are normal, no specific craving or aversions.

After repertorising the case Phosphoric acid 200, single dose was given to her.

Date: 18/05/2008

Better, having no complaints. Phosphoric acid 200 single dose repeated. Then every 15 days a single dose of phosphoric acid was repeated. Till now she is completely asymptomatic with homoeopathy only.

 

Case 3: L

35 years old sero-positive female brought to Asha Daan from another home. By whom she was brought, it is not known. She has no physical complaints as such. When angry she beats up others. Very restless, keeps rocking on chair, on bed. She eats stale food and even eats her own faeces. Restless legs when sitting, keeps on moving her legs constantly. She is not able to answer much, answers with only “yes” or “no”. When questioned about her past history or family history does not answer. She is very much affectionate towards one other patient, who is mentally retarded with very low IQ and childish behaviour. She takes complete care of her. She did not answer my questions when asked, but just kept on smiling and behaving very foolishly.

Physical generals:

She says that she likes drinking tea.

Urine and stools and other physical generals are not that significant.

Based on these few symptoms I repertorize the case and gave her Hyoscyamus 200 single dose on 10/05/2008

18/05/2008: Not much change in her behaviour. Restlessness persisted.

25/05/2008: Her restlessness was much better but still kept on moving her legs while sitting

22/05/2008: Restlessness now decreased by 60%. She now started working, which she never used to do.  She also stopped eating dirt and he own faeces.

She is now able to answer my questions in a much better way. Her restlessness has decreased very much and she has stopped behaving in a very foolish manner.

I keep her on infrequent doses of Hyoscyamus 200, and she is doing well.

 

Case 4: MN

40 years old female, Sero-positive since 3-4 years came to Asha Daan as she could not afford treatment elsewhere.  She said she had acquired the infection during a blood transfusion. She married at 25 years of age, had one child, but unfortunately the child died as it had some malignancy at 5 months of age. She complained of lower back pain and pain in forehead.

Physical generals:

She has no specific craving or aversions.

Urine, stool: Normal.

Sleep: good.

Past history: Nothing significant.

Mind:

When angry starts weeping. She is very sensitive to rudeness. Even if someone shouts at her, she starts weeping. Cannot express her anger and suppresses it. Very hard-working, previously she used to work in a plastic and biscuit factory in Nagpur. She had a 2nd child who is 18 months old now. The child is kept in an orphanage in Nagpur, because her mother is ill and was brought to Asha Daan for  treatment. Mamta remembers her child a lot, feels really sad and unhappy without her child. She feels forsaken all the time, as if she is all alone. But she is very hopeful of getting better from this illness. She kept on saying “Please doctor make me well soon”.

After repertorising the case I gave her single dose of Staphysagria 200 on 06/07/2008.

12/07/2008: Her back pain is almost the same. I repeated single dose of Staphysagria 200.

20/07/2008: Her back pain was much better. She was able to express her emotions more openly now.

I kept her on single dose of Staphysagria 200 every 7 days. She is much better and not having any other complaints at present.

 

Case 5: PG

25 years old female, sero-positive came to Asha Daan 2 years ago. She had two daughters from her marriage. Some family had adopted her children as she was ill and financially not well off.  She married in Bihar when she was very young. She never had the opportunity to study. She is very shy, especially when narrating her symptoms. She had to work really hard in fields in Bihar, as a child. Says she likes helping people do work. She misses her children a lot, weeping when thinking about them. At present she has no complaints. She is very timid especially in front of strangers.

Physical generals:

Thirst:  She desires cold water

Desires: Spicy food

Aversion: Rice

Sleeps:  on abdomen

Stool, urine: normal.

Past history: Nothing significant.

After repertorisation I gave her single dose of Phosphorus 200 on 18/05/2008.

She felt much better emotionally. I keep her on single dose of Phosphorus 200 as needed.

 

ASHA DAAN: The initiative began in 1976, when HUL supported Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity to set up Asha Daan, a home in Mumbai for abandoned, challenged children, and the destitute. Subsequently, Asha Daan has also become a home to the HIV-positive. The objective in supporting Asha Daan was and continues to be to  supporting the Mother’s mission of serving the “poorest of the poor”.  Asha Daan has been set up on a 72,500-square feet plot belonging to HUL (Hindustan Unillever Limited)  in the heart of Mumbai city.

The destitute and the HIV-positive are provided with food, shelter and medication. The needs of abandoned and challenged children are also met through classes in basic skills, physiotherapy and, if possible, corrective surgery. At any point of time, Asha Daant takes care of over 300 infants, destitute men and women and HIV-positive patients.

 

About the author

Zubin Dehmeri

Dr. Zubin S. Dehmeri MD (Hom) is practicing as a Consultant homoeopath at Daruwalla polyclinic near Bhatia hospital, where he also does personal counseling for health problems and helps people in distress. He also runs an OPD at Masina hospital. He received his MD in homoeopathy from MUHS, Nashik University in 2010. In the future he plans to do a PhD in homoeopathy and start a clinic for the poor, to give them the benefits of homoeopathy.

1 Comment

  • Nice cases elaborated. I am keen know about the status of HIV sero positivity in these cases. What is the role of homoeopathy in this aspect. symptomatic amelioration of a given complaint in a sero positive case is all what we can expect ?
    That is my query. if someone can explain ?

    Thanks.

    Regards.

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