David is currently hearing his twenty-first birthday. We received a report from his mother several months ago and will be seeing him again shortly, but his story is illustrative of the manner in which the body can be assisted in rebuilding parts of itself and correcting conditions which look otherwise permanent.
When David was born, his prognosis was guarded from the very first. At birth, he needed prolonged resuscitation, his cry was weak and retarded, his color was gray, and his breathing was labored. He was recognized to have central nervous system damage of an undetermined origin. The delivery was complicated by a face presentation, and it was later believed that the damage came from anoxia during the birth process.
David’s parents kept working with him, doing all they could. The story is too long to tell here, but when he was given a thorough neurological examination five years ago, the diagnoses were: (1) organic brain syndrome, (2) diffuse cerebral atrophy, (3) bilateral nerve deafness, and (4) psychomotor retardation.
He was then placed on the patterning program developed by Dr. Spitz, which was continued over the next three and a half years. He was brought to the Clinic three years ago. The parents started using regular massage treatments and the radio-active appliance with gold chloride in the solution jar four days each week. He was given a special diet.
His I.Q. went from 70 to 110 during the first two years he was on the patterning program, but there were troubles in schooling. He was working at the second to fourth grade level in a class for deaf children five years ago. But last June, little more than four years after the parents started all this work with David, he graduated from high school. During the past seven months, his name has been on the prayer list at the Clinic, and during David’s massages an affirmation has been used.
His mother, in telling the story, reminds the prayer group of two Bible selections: Psalm 32:8, “I will counsel you with my eye upon you,” and Psalm 37:25, “I have been young, and now and old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread.”
This is her story: “Dave graduated from high school this June with a B-plus average report card and a small scholarship, defense bond, from the National Association of the Deaf. Two bonds were given out of a class of twenty-one seniors. Dave was also awarded four outstanding achievement certificates during the year. We could hardly believe our ears when his teacher stated: ‘We’ll all miss Dave – he is the most helpful student’; ‘We wish we had fifty Daves’; ‘he can always come live with me’; ‘I wish I had a classroom of Daves.’ These comments came spontaneously from his teachers. We also observed how lovingly his teachers and other adult workers identified with him. We never believed in our fondest wishes that Dave would not only be rescued, but so honored. It wasn’t too many years ago that one of his teachers gave him all D grades and stated that we should take him out of school, that he would never read or do anything well. That is past now and will remain there.”
From the multitude of readings Cayce gave about children who were brain injured or retarded, there was always the admonition that those who were given care over this child be loving and prayerful as they sought to bring him back to a normal condition. And they were always instructed to be patient, persistent and consistent in all that they did for him. David’s parents succeeded. He needs still more care, but the big hurdle has been overcome.
[† May, 1973, Volume 8, No. 3, page 131, Copyright © 1973 by the Edgar Cayce Foundation, Virginia Beach, VA.]
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