German Health System threatens to fail again for another MCS case
Even though Germany recognizes Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and has coded it for doctors billing with T78.4 in the ICD-10GM, there is another emergency case who cannot find adequate help.
44 year old Geli H. from Essen (Ruhr region) suffers from severe MCS. For weeks she and her husband have been desperately seeking medical aid. He was allowed to take off from work to care for his wife. Geli’s food intolerance left her with only one food. Everything else causes a dangerous closing of her throat. She’s hit by vertigo, a choking fit, severe headache, and gastric spasms. The Inside of her mouth looks like raw flesh. Even if she eats a tiny little bit, all of her body may turn red and she cannot breathe. An air purifier runs all day and night. After a few sips of water, she collapses. Without competent help, she faces death.
Because of her reactions to chemicals, she should not leave the house. In her despair she tried to get help in a local clinic. At the entrance she was already exposed to disinfectant fumes, perfumes, scents from inside and cigarette smoke from patients smoking at the entry. The severe reactions of her body led her husband to bring her back home.
They asked several clinics all over Germany. The last spark of hope, a nearby anthroposophic clinic in Witten-Herdecke, was fully booked. Another declared it could not take responsibility for such cases. Doctors didn’t make things better. One environmental medicine doctor said he cannot help because there is no environmental clinic near her. Another recommended a hotline in Berlin that operates only twice a week. There seems to be no need for emergency help in Germany.
One doctor topped it all with the well known psychosomatic theory of MCS. He recommended a university hospital. Geli has pathological blood results and her immune system is down and this doctor recommends psychotherapy where she has to get used to substances which ruined her body. Is there no way to sue such doctors?
Geli is in grave danger. She might not survive a flight to the Environmental Health Center in Dallas. She quickly needs special hypoallergenic nutritional infusions. It takes only a licensed doctor sympathetic to environmental medicine for diagnosis. A willing general practitioner could apply the IV’s at her home.
If you read this in the UK, please remember Sophia who died in 2005 in a mental hospital because doctors refused to accept the organic nature of ME/CFS.
Is that the cure for all environmental disease cases?
Author: BrunO for CSN – Chemical Sensitivity Network, December 11, 2009
German Article about Geli’s Case
9 Responses to “German Health System threatens to fail again for another MCS case”
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I have this digestive form of MCS and may be able to help with diet and drugs that are helping me.
If someone knows how to contact these people have them get in touch with me, (I do not speak German). I am in several of the MCS and Chemical Sensitivity groups on facebook.
Bob Payne
Hi Bob,
Could you explain your treatment a bit more?
Best regards from Germany,
Silvia
I know an Australian with very severe MCS who found a telephone consultation with Dr Sherry Rogers helpful. There is information about this here: http://prestigepublishing.com/cgi-bin/htmlos.cgi/001879.1.3943026770015444942
There may be other overseas doctors who are knowledgeable about MCS who could give advice to a willing general practitioner.
I’m not a doctor so this isn’t medical advice, but I wondered if a different sort of water might be safer for Geli. I knew someone with extreme problems with water who couldn’t drink water from any filter or distiller but found a brand of mineral water in glass bottles that was safe for her. This made a huge difference to her health.
Best wishes to Geli and her husband,
Catherine
She and her husband should at least set up a telephone consultation with Dr. William Rea of the Environmental Health Center Dallas (www.ehcd.com). I’m unsure what Dr. Rea currently charges but only two years ago a phone consultation was US$35, well worth it. You can schedule an appointment.
Environmental Health Center-Dallas
8345 Walnut Hill Lane, Suite 220
Dallas, Texas 75231 USA
Phone: 001.214.368.4132
Fax: 001.214. 691.8432
Clinic Hours: M-F 9:00 – 5:00 Central Standard Time (CST)
Good luck!
Zlad
Es freut mich sehr, dass dieses Kapitel des deutschen Gesundheitssystem die Runde über den Erdball macht. Die Welt soll wissen, wir man mit uns verfährt. Wir MCS-Kranke schweigen nicht mehr!
Es freut mich sehr, dass dieses Kapitel des deutschen Gesundheitssystem die Runde über den Erdball macht. Denn wie ich eben im CSN-Forum gelesen habe, wurde dieser Blog nun auch ins Japanische übersetzt und veröffentlicht.
Die Welt soll ruhig wissen, wir man mit uns Umweltkranken verfährt.
Wir MCS-Kranke schweigen nicht mehr!!!
http://www.csn-deutschland.de/forum/showthread.php?id=12282
I have a similar form of MCS, it would appear, as I get an asthma attack from many foods, particularly forming antibodies to foods eaten repeatedly. Potatoes are the one thing I can eat, sometimes for months on end, while allowing my digestive tract and mucous membranes to heal. When they become inflamed, from a significant chemical or mold exposure, it starts the inflammation and then, the food sensitivities. I think this is due to mucous membrane irritation and have been told it is leaky gut syndrome by an enviro doc, that the gut allows allergens to pass through that normally wouldn’t, due to the poor condition of the mucosal tissues. A medication that has very significantly helped with this is Zantac, or in prescription, Ranitidine, I take 150 mg. twice daily. For larger person, it would be 300 mg, but I can’t tolerate that. It is used in helping stomach heal from ulcers also. Then, benedryl, 1/4 of 25 mg tablet, 1/2 hour before eating, in order to avoid the reaction, if unable to eat at all, in order to do so. The benedryl and ranitidine (Zantac, over the counter) were suggested to me by docs familiar with MCS and mold-illness, and without this I doubt I would be alive. Best wishes, hope this is of help.
One additional thing: the rotation of foods when possible is a good thing, not repeat-eating, when possible, in order to stave off the formation of antibodies. I will keep this lady in prayer, above.
All of the above is what I was told, for my condition, by environmental physicians and a gastroenterologist confirmed the help that ranitidine provides. This is not intended to be medical advice for others.