I Couldn’t Even Give It Away
Today I read about a patient with Muscular Dystrophy (MD) that was helped by chiropractic care. It reminds me of incident that occurred some years ago that surprised and saddened me.
A few years after I started my holistic chiropractic practice, I was approached by the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation to “go to jail.” You pretend you are in jail and call your friends and colleagues to raise money for them. At the time I was running my practice and had 2 little boys, so I didn’t have the time to spend on a day “in jail.”
What I did offer them is a donation of a full year’s worth of care, no charge, for 2 children in their group.
I was excited about the thought of providing care to those kids, and making a difference as much as I could, to help them live more productive and comfortable lives. In my studies, I had read about the progress that some children have made with chiropractic care, and that at the very least it wasn’t going to hurt. I started reading up on techniques and special cases with MD that my colleagues had dealt with over the years to learn what has worked the best...
I looked forward to hearing back from the MD association, but they didn’t get back to me. When I called them the answer was this: “We’re sorry, we can’t accept that donation.”
“Why not?” I asked. The person hummed and hawed, and just indicated they simply weren’t interested in accepting my offer. I was confused since I thought my offer was quite generous. Oh silly, idealistic me...
Couldn’t they at least offer it to the families that they work with and let them make the decision? NO. Can you put it up on a bulletin board or something, at least giving families the choice to come and see me if they choose to? NO.
For years now I say I “don’t donate to diseases.” Meaning to the Heart Association, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Cancer Society, etc. I know they do some good for a lot of people, but their traditional medical model is limited. Where does all that money go really??
Instead I put my focus, my time, my money, and my help towards things that I feel more deeply support healing the whole person, and not just the perpetuation of disease care. But that’s just me...
Photo by by Matthew Burpee via flickr