In 1996, the year I saw Mrs. Hamptom, over 6000 patients with diabetes were hospitalized for lower limb amputations. This number was expected to reach over 10,500 patients by 2006 and over 15,000 by 2015.
 
Prevention of suffering and reduction of cost of health care with naturopathy and homeopathy
If we as naturopaths and homeopaths could only work alongside conventional doctors in hospitals and clinics, so much suffering could be prevented and so much money could be saved. At the present time 40% of the provincial budget in BC is spent on health care and the majority of this money goes towards critical illness, chronic disease, including drugs, long term care, end of life care etc. Most of these areas could be served through preventative and collaborative care with natural methods.

A Close Call

(Please note: All names and identifying details have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals. However, this is a true case and I am in possession of all of the records.)
“Doc, it’s about my mother,” Will Hampton was on the phone, sounding distressed. “The
doctors want to amputate her leg within the next week. I don’t think she'd make it. She is
84 and so weak.” He was almost crying.  “I don’t want her to die on the operating table.
Is there anything you can do? Can you see her tomorrow?”

The next day, Will arrived at my office with his mother in a wheelchair. My office at the
time was not easily wheelchair accessible, in fact, patients had to negotiate several
steps to enter the building, but before I knew it a resolute and burly Will Hampton had
scooped his tiny, fragile-looking mother up in his arms and carried her right into my
consultation room.  He deposited her tenderly into one of the large, comfortably
upholstered chairs in my consulting room, which seemed to swallow up the small figure.

Marie Hampton was 84 years old and looked as if she did not weigh a pound more than
her age. Her entire body was severely crippled with arthritis, especially her hands,
which looked gnarled and painfully twisted.  Her sea-blue eyes matched those of her
son’s and were still bright and lively, as was her mind.

“Look doctor,” she said, tugging at her beige trouser legs to reveal a large bandaged
area around her left foot.  Her entire foot and lower leg were visibly swollen. “It’s a fine
mess. Be careful taking off the bandage.”

“How long has it been like that?” I asked, starting to unwrap her foot.

“Five days now. First my foot and toe suddenly turned red and swelled up like a
balloon. Two days ago my big toe started turning black. It’s getting worse every day.”
By now I had removed the entire dressing. Her foot was a deep purple colour and her
entire big toe was charcoal black.
“The doctors say that they need to amputate the leg just below the knee as soon as
possible, because the toe is becoming gangrenous, “explained Will. “Mom has
peripheral vascular disease caused by her diabetes and arthritis.”

Peripheral vascular disease cause by diabetes

 Will knew his medical terminology. Peripheral vascular disease refers to a disease
process of the small blood vessels supplying blood to the extremities, a common
complication of diabetes. The blood vessels become narrowed and clogged up until
there is no circulation left and the tissues are starved of oxygen and nutrition.
“The doctors say that the toe is also infected and if the leg does not come off the
infection will spread quickly, possibly killing Mom,” said Will. “Mom is on antibiotics, but
they’re not working.”
Gangrene is a serious complication of diabetes caused by the decaying and dying off
of body tissue as a result of lack of blood flow or circulation.
Approximately 85% of all amputations in patients with diabetes are caused by gangrene.

Diabetic gangrene is the most common cause of amputation

In fact, this condition is the most common cause of non-trauma induced amputation in
North America, and on the rise.
As mentioned, Will had already told me on the phone yesterday about his fears that his
mother would not survive such a serious operation.
“Besides, Mom told me that she would never agree to an amputation,” he had said.     
“Mom swears she would rather die than go through with it. I told doctor Friesen about
this and she said that was a normal reaction, but that the amputation would improve my
mother’s quality of life. What do you think?”
“I don’t know, Will, let me take a look first.”
“Dr. Friesen then told me that in any case, Mom was old and it would be a good thing if
she died on the operating table if she wanted to go anyway! Needless to say, I was very
upset. That’s when I called you.”
“I can’t promise you anything, but I’m glad you called.”
“I felt there was nothing to lose by seeing you,” he said.
I had heard that remark hundreds of times.
So here we were, one week away from a leg amputation. The only thing that worried me
was that I had never actually seen a case of gangrene in my office before. At least not
in a human anyway.

Impending gangrene of the foot in a squirrel

I had, however, treated impending gangrene in a squirrel only about a month before.
Yes, a squirrel. I had a friend in the neighbourhood who volunteered for a wildlife
rehabilitation service and who regularly took care of injured or abandoned wild animals
in her home. I would often see Valerie on doggie walks in the neighbourhood and
naturally ask her what kinds of critters she was looking after at the moment.
She took care of raccoons, birds, sometimes a fawn, but most often she looked after
squirrels, sometimes as many as six or seven of them at the same time. Valerie was a
squirrel rehab expert. She was also very interested in natural methods of healing,
especially homeopathy, which she often successfully used for her little charges. 
She knew that I was also very interested in animals and therefore occasionally
consulted with me about her four-legged patients. A couple of months ago, she had
brought me three baby squirrels with diarrhea, that had lost their mother and were not
doing well. A little homeopathic diarrhea complex cleared them up in no time.
Her most recent patient for me was a full-grown grey squirrel, named Jack by Valerie,
which had suffered an unfortunate encounter with a piece of string. The string had
wrapped itself tightly around one of its hind legs just above the foot, cutting off the
circulation and leaving him unable to walk. The offending string had been removed as
soon as Jack had been found, but the circulation was not returning to the foot and
gangrene seemed imminent. Valerie’s vet had suggested to wait one more day before
putting the little fellow to sleep as gangrene would mean a slow, cruel death.
So here I was, never having treated a case of impending gangrene, not to mention a
case of impending gangrene in a squirrel!

Secale cornutum in the treatment of gangrene

We didn’t have any time to lose. A quick computer search of the homeopathic remedies
commonly used for gangrene brought up a couple of likely choices, the two most
promising being Secale cornutum, a remedy prepared from rye smut (a black mold that
grows on rye kernels) and Arsenicum album, a remedy made from, yes, Arsenic. These
choices may not seem particularly appetizing to a lay person, but every homeopath is
quite fond of them, especially of Arsenicum album. What would we do without it in cases
of traveller’s diarrhea, including Montezuma’s revenge? Never go to Mexico without it!
Then I realized that we did not carry any Secale cornutum in our otherwise quite well-
stocked dispensary.
“Who else might have some?” asked Valerie, undeterred. “I’ll go and pick it up.”  A few
phone calls later we had found a compounding pharmacy in Toronto which carried the
remedy. Valerie took her little charge, jumped into the car and sped off for the one-hour
drive from Newmarket to Toronto to collect the remedy and give it to Jack  right there
and then.
I anxiously waited to hear from her the next day. My experience with homeopathic
remedies when given in acute conditions had always been that a change could often be
expected within minutes and at most within a day. Valerie called me around 11 am the
next morning.
“Anke, I think it may be working. I gave the remedy every hour as you said and today
Jack’s foot looks a little more pink.”
“Great news, Valerie, give the remedy a little less often, around every three to four
hours, and call me again tomorrow,” I said.

A hopeful recovery

The squirrel recovered completely within a few days and was released back into the
wild. I was happy that he had done so well, but frankly, I was not entirely sure if the
remedy had in fact helped at all or if our little friend would not have regained his health
on his own anyway.  I next saw Valerie a couple of weeks later on one of my usual
doggie-walks with my little dog, Kylie.
“Hey, Anke, guess what?” she began. “Right after we treated Jack the squirrel, one of
my co-workers told me she was scheduled to have a toe amputated. Gangrene again,
caused by diabetes. I told her about Jack and she asked if she could take the same
thing. We figured it wouldn’t hurt, so I gave her Jack’s leftovers and within two days her
toe felt better. Her doctor said she doesn’t need the amputation any more!”
Nothing quite like playing doctor, or vet for that matter, is there?

Secale again

I decided to take a chance and give Mrs. Hampton a dose of Secale cornutum, 200 CH
right in my office.  Luckily I had decided to get some for out clinic right after the
encounter with Jack. I also recommended some Vitamin E as well as Ginkgo biloba
extract to further support the circulation to her foot .I told Will to keep a close eye on his
mother’s condition and call me the next day to report on any changes. I did not have
long to wait.
“The blue colour on Mom’s foot is better; it looks more like a dark pink now,” reported
Will around 10 am the next day. “The black on the toe is waning, too, it now looks more
brown. Could it be working that fast?”
“Maybe, Will, I hope so anyway,” I said.
“The swelling is better, too!” He was thrilled.

A new problem

 He called me again closer to 5 pm, this time sounding a little less happy. “Anke, Dr.
Friesen won’t give my mother the supplements you prescribed.”
“Oh, how come, Will?”
“I don’t know.  I just went to see Mom again to check on her foot and got so upset!”
“What, is her foot worse?”
“No, it is even better than this morning, the nurse said so, too. I was so upset about the
vitamins that Nancy the charge nurse told me to calm down or I’d have a stroke!”
I had to suppress my laughter. I could just see him there, throwing a tantrum. Will was
an expressive man, to say the least.
“Has Dr. Friesen call you yet?”
“No, Will, she hasn’t, did she want to speak to me?”
“Well, she said she would call you about the vitamins.”
“That would be good. But don’t worry, your Mom is getting better even without them.
The homeopathic remedy is already doing the job.”
“Yeah, I guess. But I want to do everything we can. Mom and I are going to see Dr.
Benoit tomorrow morning, he is the specialist who wants to do the amputation.”
“Good luck, Will, call me right after you see him please, let me know what he thinks.” I
was hopeful.
Will called me around 1 pm the next day.
Good news
“Mom just ate a huge lunch,” he said excitedly. “I haven’t seen her eat this much in
ages. Dr. Benoit gave us great news: Mom does not need the amputation any more!”
He told me that the black colour of her big toe had entirely disappeared. But Dr.
Friesen had still not given the green light for the administration of the supplements I
had recommended, nor had she called me to discuss the patient with me.
“Dr. Friesen told me two days ago that she could get sued if something happened to
Mom from taking the vitamins. She told me she needed to do some research, but she
still hasn’t spoken to you as she said she would.” I could almost feel his blood pressure
rising.
“I told the charge nurse at Mom’s nursing home that Dr. Friesen should be afraid of
being sued for not giving the vitamins, as she is denying my mother the opportunity for
further healing. Can you believe that?”
The next day,  Friday, Will received a call from Dr. Friesen asking to meet with her and
nursing home staff the following Monday to discuss his mother’s care.         
Over the weekend Mrs. Hampton’s foot continued to improve and Will reported to me
that there was no swelling at all and that the colour of the skin had returned to normal.
Meanwhile, being so upset at Dr. Friesen, Will had begun to keep a diary of everything
that had happened with his mother’s care. This is an excerpt from his entry dated
November 4, 1996:
"The meeting took place at the nursing home at 11 am, between myself, Dr. Friesen,
Mrs. Jones, the administrator of the nursing home, and Andrea, the charge nurse. I
was told that the supplements would be administered. I was then accused of harassing
the staff and had allegedly called Dr. Friesen ‘stupid’. I said this was an outright lie.
I was then told by Dr. Friesen that I should look around for another doctor because she
did not want to be part of “Hokus Pokus” medicine.
At this point Mrs. Jones turned to me and told me that I should also look around for
another nursing home for my mother.
I could not believe what I was hearing. When I asked in what time frame this had to be
done, she replied that, “Whereas it is against the law to throw your mother out, you
should start looking as soon as possible.” She then said it had nothing to do with my
mother, but rather with me.
Andrea, the charge nurse then told me she would make a list of names of doctors I
could get in touch with, and assured me that my mother would still get good care."
According to Will neither the doctor nor the staff ever showed any interest at all in the
cause of Mrs. Hampton’s unexpected recovery. Mrs. Hampton passed away from
pneumonia six months later. Her foot healed completely. She never needed the
amputation.

Will thought about going public with the case and we spoke to the local MP about it,  but
after his mother's death he was too grief-stricken to pursue the matter.
According to the Canadian Diabetes Association the cost of a lower limb amputation in
Canada amounts to $74,000 per case for hospitalization alone, not including additional
costs for rehabilitation, medication, physiotherapy etc. In 1996, the year I saw Mrs.
Hampton, over 6,600 Canadians with diabetes were hospitalized for lower limb
amputations. This number is expected to reach over 10,500 by 2006 and over 15,000
by 2015. Over 700 million dollars a year.

Diabetic foot ulcers, leading to gangrene, precede approximately 85 percent of all
amputations in patients with diabetes and account for more hospital days than all other
diabetic complications combined. Based on a recent study, the total cost of diabetes to
Canadian society was $13.2 billion in 2002, up significantly from $9 billion in 1998.

The total cost of the homeopathic remedy, of which Mrs. Hampton needed only one
single dose and which was the main factor in her recovery was exactly $3.00.

(Note to reader: Even though all the cases described in this chapter improved with the
homeopathic remedy Secale cornutum, it does not mean that Secale is a remedy for
gangrene in general. There are many other natural remedies and therapies which
could be helpful and it is very important that the best treatment for each individual is
determined by a qualified practitioner of naturopathic or homeopathic medicine. I
published this case to try and give hope to thousands of diabetic sufferers.
If we as naturopaths and homeopaths could only work alongside conventional doctors
in hospitals and clinics so much suffering could be prevented and so much money
could be redirected. If all the money saved from not amputating all those limbs went into
our schools our kids could be in classes half their present size and university tuition
could be cut drastically, and that is just for one disease. Naturopathy, homepoathy and
other alternative and complementary health care modalities have the potential to not
only relief much suffering but also to redistribute money towards education and better
social support systems. At the present time 40% of the provincial budget in BC is spent
on health care and the majority of this goes towards critical illness, chronic disease,
long term care, end of life care etc, most of which could be prevented with natural
methods and virtually none goes towards prevention.
Changing the approach to health and healing towards supportive, natural therapies
that work with the body instead of against it could save billions of dollars and allow the
public health care system as well as the public education system to not only continue -
the prognosis for this is dim as it is with the aging population, increasing debt load and
the rise of chronic disease - but to improve those systems.