Breaking the Ice

Here are a few pages to be added to my version of the Burn & Wound booklet. The Amish Healer had me make his own version and started with 8,000 copies for the American Amish. In the printed version he leaves out many stories that I have gathered about himself. This is the most recent story: ENJOY (mh)





Breaking the Ice



A little history of the B&W ointment





Recently, we had the privilege of attending a meeting where about 200 people had gathered to hear the Amish Healer tell some of his experiences in treating burns. Some of the first ones he had were his own children.



To begin with, he had nothing to offer, but the old saying is that necessity is the mother of invention. It so happened that at the very time one of his sons suffered rather serious burns; two children of one of his relatives had been confined in the burn center in the capital of a nearby state. John was receiving letters every week, giving details of what they were going through. According to the letters from his relative, the treatment that the two children were getting was indescribably horrible! He promised his two-year-old son, in silence, that he would do his best to avoid that kind of treatment id it were in any way at all possible to do so.



After concentrating over their problem carefully at length, he and his wife, Laura, came up with a salve, which they felt would serve their purpose. So they dressed their son’s wound carefully and placed gauze dressing over it. But the next morning, when they went to remove the dressing, they were sorely disappointed. Instead of being able to remove it as they had anticipated, the entire dressing stuck fast to the wound. After spending a painful half hour in sweat and tears to remove the dressing he realized they were needing something else but he did not know what.



So, he told his wife, “Please make our son as comfortable as you can. I must have some time alone where no one can find me. I will be back soon.”



So, he retired to the solitude of the nearby woods and sat down on a stump where he could meditate as to what he should use to fulfill his purpose. Here his attention was drawn to the plantain leaves, which were growing profusely all around where he was sitting in the woodland. So he gathered a supply, went home, applied to the wound, covered it with plantain leaves, and it felt better right away!



The most amazing thing of all was when it was time to remove the dressing, it all slid off so nice and clean! Five days later, there was new skin covering the entire scalded area, which was second-degree burns over 18% of his body area. When he came to realize what had happened, he was confident that he had made a significant discovery.



Several years later, one of his daughters was sent to the cellar to fetch a can of fruit, which was on an upper shelf. It was dark in the cellar, so she carried a lighted Coleman pressure lantern with a metal covering over the top. She set the lantern on the floor, stepped on the edge of the third shelf to reach the can of fruit. She lost her grip on the top shelf, and landed square on top of the very hot lantern. Her dress went over the lantern and she came down with the care skin square on the searing hot cap of the lantern. After landing in such a position, she was unable to get up off the lantern unassisted. Of course, she let out a deafening scream, which brought her parents to her aid on the run!



By this time, the searing hot top of the lantern had burned a hole right through the two outer layers of skin on her buttock, about two inches in diameter. These layers of skin were melted and the white layers of subcutaneous fatty tissue underneath could be plainly seen. This was a serious burn and might be called a fourth degree burn, if there is anything like that!



The injury was quickly cooled and thoroughly coated with the burn slave and covered with burdock leaves, which, by this time, were being used instead of plantain leaves. This was because it was discovered burdock leaves give faster results. Apparently, they contain a strong antibiotic, although plantain leaves are still being used in some circumstances.



Since the area was relatively small, it filled in within a few days. But the amazing thing which he could hardly believe was that the entire wound was covered with new skin in seven days. Previously to this, no one had ever heard of a third degree burn being covered with new skin in so short a period of time.



The above incident actually happened and is not exaggerated! When he was able to comprehend what had taken place, he was so fired up with enthusiasm that he has as yet not gotten over it! This incident gave him the vision that some day a burn treatment would be available which would greatly reduce the suffering the burn victim would need to endure. It took him some time to grasp the significance of what he had witnessed! Here was a case of third degree burns and the wound had actually been covered with new skin in seven days’ time!



At the same time, he did not realize the importance of the discovery he had made. Although for more serious burns, it would take longer to heal, further research would show that the new skin, which was grown without grafting, is very similar to the original skin in many of its characteristics. It will expand as the child grows or the adult gains weight. It will contain sweat glands, oil glands, and be able to help regulate the temperature of the body. It will never need the surgical releases, which has plagued so many recipients of skin grafts throughout the remainder of their lives.



Additional advantages are that only the most serious cases of burns would need to be confined to burn centers in order to keep them monitored for dehydration, infection, shock, or any other condition, which would require that kind of supervision. It is believed there would be a substantial reduction of deaths due to resistant bacteria and viruses too often found in the larger hospitals.



The fact remains that the Amish Healer has never once used or needed Antibiotics during all the years of dressing burns. He did support the normal body functions in every way possible through the intake of needed nutrients and the removal of toxins.



Lastly, it should be mentioned about the very significant reduction in costs, which would be possible by using this new method of treating burns. The statement has been made that is this method of treating burns would cost ten times as much as the now accepted methods; it would still be a bargain, whereas it actually cost less than 1/10th as much!



Although this method of treating burns is now becoming widely used in our Plain Communities for small and medium third degree burns, it is as yet not accepted where it would make the most impact, namely on extensive third degree burns. Apparently, once a certain method of treatment is accepted by the medical community at large, it is very difficult to change it, even if there is evidence to do so. If you have read the accounts in this booklet so fat, you are, no doubt, aware of how difficult it is to do so. Of course, it is not without reason why a lot of caution needs to be used in accepting new methods and procedures.



At this meeting, the Amish Healer urged his listeners to proceed with caution. We do not want to get bold just because we think we have something, which works. Should things go wrong, as they easily could, we might be in a lot of trouble. This is serious business and no time to get too bold or “try to be a hero”!



He stressed the point that it is always better to try to work with the medical authorities than against them if possible. They have reason to be slow in accepting anything new until it is well thought out and proven to be able to do the job. Although considerable progress has already been made in some quarters, there is still a long way to go to “break the ice” to gain acceptance of this radically new approach in healing serious burns.



He related several accounts which some of the burn victims have had in trying to make use of this new concept of healing, burns within the confines of a burn unit. We would like to elaborate on one of these on which he spent considerable time, with only partial success, to show how difficult this can be. This is a true story, although some of the irrelevant details have been changed to protect the identity of the participants.



It so happened that an Amish woman suffered burns on about 70% of her body area. These extended from the top of her shoes, up to her chest. Her lungs, her head, and the upper parts of her body were not affected. Fortunately, there was a quantity of B&W salve and burdock leaves available, so these were applied on her body, which alleviated the pain.



However, since such a large part of her body was affected, she went into shock and was taken to the local hospital to stabilize her condition. When the personnel at the hospital became aware of how extensive the burns were, they immediately called for the helicopter to transport her to the burn center at a university hospital for that area. In route to the hospital, the pilot was astounded at her complacency in view of the extent of her injuries. He was used to hearing victims of burns of such extent to be moaning and groaning, so he asked, “Doesn’t it hurt?”



“Oh, no,” she answered. “My burns were dressed with a burn salve and burdock leaves and they do not hurt me at this time.”

Of course, he was at a loss to understand that as he knew nothing about B&W salve or burdock leaves.



When they arrived at the hospital, the director or the burn center wanted to know what all the dirty stuff was over her body and where it came from. When he was told that it was burn ointment and burdock leaves, he asserted that it must be removed immediately before infection set in. she was hosed off under pressure, which set off a chain reaction which brought on bleeding of all the injuries, and caused her intense pain.



The bleeding continued until she had to be given three units of blood transfusion, and then later, an additional three units. My understanding is that she was given a total of eleven units altogether, in all probably, none of which would have been needed had they been made aware of the circumstances! It also left a considerable portion of her body exposed to disease germs where the surface had been broken.



Let us stop and consider how entirely different it might have been had she been allowed to continue with the B&W salve and burdock leaves.



From what we have already observed, we have reason to believe that had the burned area been properly dressed with B&W salve and burdock leaves, she would have been able to relax without any pain or discomfort to speak of. In the numerous cases, which have been so treated, there have never been any serious cases of infection. Apparently, this is due to the strong content of antibiotic, so strong at times that it causes an allergic reaction and must be changed to milder dressing such as plantain leaves, lettuce, or ground flax seed.



Over and over again, it has been consistently demonstrated that if burns are properly dressed and conscientiously changed every twelve hours, healing will take place without delay.



To get back to this woman in the burn unit. As she was a firm believer in the alternative method of healing, at her first opportunity, she began telling the director of the burn unit about the Amish Healer and his method of healing. Finally, he became curious enough to know more about this matter and he granted permission for him to some to the hospital with his salve and whatever else was needed.



Meantime, they went on with the dressing, he was told that he would not be allowed to touch the patient as only the doctors and burses are permitted to do this. But he was to instruct the burses what to do and how to do it.



They got off to a bad start. Since none of the burses had ever seen or done anything like this, they were at a total loss as to how to go about it. John told them the salve must be warmed to body temperature, stirred up, and then applied to the injured area. Since none of the nurses had ever had any training in this kind of work, he could hardly contain himself, but kelp on giving instructions. He insisted that the salve be smoothed, no lumps, and the entire area must be covered. Of course, none of this was done to his satisfaction, but he had to accept it as best they could do.



It ended up with a quantity of the salve and burdock leaves on the floor, and some portions of the injured area, were not covered. He told them that any area which is not covered with burdock would stick to the gauze the next morning.



The next morning, when it was time to do the dressing, the director of the burn unit was not there, so the nurses proceeded to unwrap the patient. They were all surprised at how nice it already looked and appeared to be firming up. Some spots, which were not properly covered, did stick and he told them he had said the evening before it would do this. Since this was a new set of nurses, he had to start all over again in telling them how to do it. Finally, in sheer exasperation, he grabbed a cloak and donned a cap and proceeded to show them how it should be done!



This time, he took the opportunity to do her whole body as it should be done. When the salve and the burdock leaves were in place, he wrapped it with gauze, ending up with a complete body wrap. Then the patient did the unthinkable, got up off the table, and walked back unassisted to her room. The nurses were astounded and could not believe what they were seeing!



However, from then on, things did not go so well. The grafted area, which had been covered with skin taken from the cadaver, was not taking as they had expected. He asked them to cover it with the salve the same as the rest of the area, even though he had never done this before and did not know whether it would work.

About this time, she started with a high fever, as well as a build-up of gas, which extended her abdomen, and loss of appetite. In addition, diarrhea set in and she was not able to keep down anything she ate or drank. The Amish Healer begged the doctor to give her something to clear this up, saying that he has always gotten good results by using charcoal for diarrhea, but the doctor refused to do this, claiming that this would nullify the effects of the strong Antibiotics she was taking.



It was evident that she had gotten a virulent infection, probably after her body had been hosed off when she entered the hospital. Diagnosis of the blood samples, which had been submitted to the laboratory showed she had a very rare case of serious infection. She was pout on high dosage of the strongest antibiotic. Her condition continued to deteriorate and it was evident that she could not long survive in this condition.



She requested to be anointed so the bishop and ministers of her church came to the hospital and fulfilled her wish. Word was sent out to those who knew her of the seriousness of the case and many interceded for her that night.



By the next morning, she had taken a turn for the better and was soon taking nourishment and fluids again.



Application of the salve to her body was continued, including the portions which had been grafted with skin from the cadaver. The last reports we had was that the real skin was growing through these grafts and that it would not need to be removed. If this is true, it would be a very significant breakthrough.



Later, the director of the burn unit admitted that what the Amish Healer had said about the infection and diarrhea was true. He is interested in giving the B&W regimen a thorough trial under supervised conditions to see how it actually works. Apparently, there is some hesitancy in using something like dried burdock leaves under a hospital setting. This is not at all what they have learned in the medical colleges and they cannot visualize it effecting such results as it does. But seeing is believing. We are confident that skin can be grown on third degree burns which is comparable to the original skin. Of they are willing to accept the truth, all they need to do is to give it an unbiased trial to see for themselves.



We are looking forward to the day when B&W salve will be used to dress all minor and major burns, and they will be covered with burdock leaves until such time when, and if, something better is found to take their place!