Chrissy's Song

By John Barbagallo DC

For decades brain injury was considered the death sentence for the living. Once a person experienced trauma to the brain whether from forces outside the body or inside, he or she was never able to return to their previous life. The medical profession offered little treatment and even less hope for recovery. People spent a lifetime suffering depression, memory loss and pain, unable to perform activities that once was considered normal. Depression and pain was numbed through drugs which became a lifetime dependence. Memory was considered a thing of the past.

Moderate to severe brain injury causes the person to have even worse limitations. Loss of the use of an arm or leg or both results in a lifetime dependence on people to perform simple activities that even a child can perform. The only treatment this person receives is a short stint of rehab that everybody in the medical profession involved knows will have no effect on the person’s condition. There are no drugs that can improve this condition and the expectation is a life of severe limitations. The outlook is bleak.

Chrissy’s Song reveals that out of personal tragedy comes the shining light of hope for all. Coming out of its pages are various treatments that have a positive effect in successfully treating brain injury. These treatments are not new but have been around for decades. Through its pages, you will learn why these treatments have been deliberately hidden from those people that needed them the most.

Astonishingly, the lame can walk. A sixty-five year old man has a severe stroke and loses use of his arm and leg. Through unique targeted rehab techniques, he regained full use of his limbs. This occurred sixty years ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885402712

Book preview

1

Assault of an Angel

Evening began to slowly come upon a small New Jersey town. The day had consisted of mild temperatures with a brightly lit sky. It was a typical calm day winding down with people returning home after a day at work. The five-road intersection was the center of this idyllic town and hadn’t changed much in thirty years.

A young woman was beginning a journey to visit her parents in the next town. She drove her beloved Mustang and anticipated no obstacles. She was very familiar with the route, having driven it many times. The destination was where she spent most of her childhood.

She was on the main road at this intersection, making a left-hand turn when suddenly. the unthinkable happened. A loud bang disrupted this calm, warm September evening. Out of nowhere, an SUV came barreling at high speed into the intersection and slammed into the right front fender of the Mustang with the force of a locomotive. So horrendous was the collision, so violent the attack that the Mustang went airborne.

The young woman’s head slammed into the dashboard at the moment of impact. Her brain continued to move inside her head until it was forcibly stopped by slamming into the inside of her hard boney skull, instantly killing brain cells.

Once the car was airborne, it flipped in the air, whipping the young woman around like a rag doll. The rear end of the car slammed into the ground first, followed by the rest of the car. Sometime after slamming her head against the dashboard, her head was thrown back and slammed against the door, fracturing her skull and killing more brain cells. When the car came to rest, it had been forced back over fifty feet from the collision. A twenty-year-old young woman, the lone occupant of the Mustang, was slumped over, motionless.

The firehouse sat on the corner next to where the Mustang came to rest. Immediately, the EMTs rushed to this unconscious slumped over young woman to render first aid.

Her mom was on the treadmill, and her dad was sitting on the couch. Her three brothers were playing in the house. It was a typical quiet day. Suddenly, the phone rang. On the other end was this young woman’s uncle. He was part of the fire company and had received the news that his niece was the young woman. The father immediately recognized the voice but instantly knew something was wrong. He sat up. Chrissy was in an accident, the uncle said.

Nothing prepared the father for this. His heart stopped and sank into his stomach. He stood up and faced his wife. It is amazing how facial expressions are almost as effective as words. She knew instantly that something was wrong and stopped walking. The husband told his wife the worst news one could tell a parent. Chrissy was in an accident. She immediately started crying. In a blink of an eye, their lives changed forever.

Chrissy was my daughter. She was only twenty years old, six days away from her twenty-first birthday. She was a vibrant young woman, full of life, and just beginning a promising career in drag racing. In a blink of eye, her life, as she knew it, was over.

*****

On September 22, 1982, we were blessed with a healthy, plump, nine-pound angel. She was our first of four children and would be the only girl. I would get to the hospital in the morning and spend the whole day holding her in my arms. The only time I let her out of my arms was so she could be breastfed by Luann since it was one function I was not suited for. She was the most adorable baby I ever saw.

Chrissy was exposed to animals early in life, and I believe this is probably where her love for animals began. When she was about two years old, we bought two milk goats so we could have fresh milk. One Saturday morning, I got up and looked in Chrissy’s room which was about two feet away. She wasn’t in her room, and I couldn’t find her anywhere in the small two-bedroom house. I was frantic and got a sick feeling in my stomach. I ran out the front door, and there she was, petting the goats. Not only did we have the door handle locks, we also had additional locks above the handle of each door. However, you could operate the lock by twisting a knob. She was about three years old when she unlocked the door. Shortly after, I went to the hardware store and bought locks that used keys on both the inside and outside of the house. She was smart and she learned fast. She always kept us on our toes.

She had a loving and kind heart. When her brothers came along, she loved them with all of her heart. She watched over them like a mother hen. Chrissy was compassionate toward all people and she did not shy away from helping people in need.

Chrissy loved animals, and our house became a sanctuary. It seemed that every stray cat ended up at our house. Every time she would bring home a cat, I would tell her, No more cats. She listened well because I would come home and there would be another cat. We ended up having seven cats, a hamster, a guinea pig, a rabbit, and a dog.

Let’s talk about the dog. I was in South Carolina, finishing school, when I had a bad feeling concerning the safety of my family. I prayed that night that they would be protected. The next day, I got a call from my wife. She said a dog showed up and was peeking through the windows. She also happened to be pregnant. The next thing I knew, the dog was in the house and having her babies under the watchful eye of doctor Chrissy.

I am sad to say it, but Chrissy seemed to possess the mechanical skills in the family. I mean, I was proud of Chrissy but baffled that my son, Mike, was void of those skills usually possessed by the males of our species. Let me give you an example where Mike forever shamed our family. Mike was an avid soccer player. One day, Mike was driving his car to practice and had one of his teammates with him when he got a flat tire. It turned out that these two geniuses didn’t know how to change a tire. So Mike called home and asked if somebody could travel forty-five minutes to change the tire.

Chrissy was the only one available to help, so she took off to help them. Meanwhile, these two examples of manhood took two chairs out of the car and made themselves comfortable alongside the road as they waited for the big sister to bail them out. I still tease Mike about this. If you are wondering if Mike’s mechanical skills have improved over the years, his abilities have involved to at least changing a tire but little else.

Chrissy competed in roller skating and participated in karate, but she found her need for speed in drag racing. She raced her 1987 Mustang. One day, while she was at the track, she caught the eye of a man who happened to own a dedicated race car. He was captivated by her because she was actually working on her car. One thing led to another, and she became his driver. She immediately became the talk of the Internet.

Instead of concentrating on drag racing and caring for her many pets, she now was confined to her bed. The accident wasn’t her fault, yet she paid a heavy price. One whose life was full of vigor and a promising future is now unable to communicate and cannot perform any activity for herself, not even scratch her nose. She needs me to keep her trach—which is a device inserted in her neck that she breathes through—free of phlegm. Otherwise, she would struggle to breathe. In the early days, after I brought her home, she struggled with phlegm twenty-four hours a day. I was woken up constantly throughout the night by her coughing and had to suction her to keep her airway open.

So what would you do if your husband or child suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident? What would you do if your child suffered a brain injury while playing a sport? What would you do if a family member suffered a brain injury as a result of serving his country? WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

2

Brain Injury, Health Care, and Caregivers

Brain injury in any form is not something that the majority of Americans is familiar with or prepared for as they go about their daily lives. Nobody has a treatment plan worked out to utilize if a family member or they suffer a brain injury. Worse yet, the dominant health care profession, the medical profession, has no clue on how to treat brain injury.

The brain is the one organ we know the least about, and the treatment of this mysterious organ is based on myths and speculation, not on facts. Medical treatment of brain injury is largely nonexistent and is based on the protocol of wait and see. There are many treatments that have been used successfully in improving the condition of those suffering from brain injuries. These treatments, however, do not involve drugs. Since they do not increase the profits of drug companies, these safe nondrug treatments will not be used by the doctors of medicine. Worse yet, since the medical profession and the drug companies are linked, these nondrug treatments are never presented to the patient or his family to consider.

More and more people are utilizing safe and effective nondrug treatments and protocols that have been found through research to stimulate healing in the brain and increase the chances for a positive outcome. In order to force medicine to incorporate these nondrug treatments and protocols, the majority of Americans must take control of their health care.

People have essentially two ways to react to a tragedy. You can let tragedy break your will and let other people choose your course of action. Or you can reach deep into your being and connect with an inner strength that all people possess but few are willing to call upon. This strength is the ability to choose our response to the devastating effects that tragedy releases upon us. Instead of surrendering to adversity, our ability to choose our reaction and course of action leaves adversity no choice but to surrender to us. We can meet the effects of tragedy on our terms.

So do you allow the effects of tragedy to beat you? Or do you beat back the effects of tragedy. Do you listen to a medical doctor who tells you that you only have six months to live and surrender? Or do you take responsibility for yourself, research your options, and seek out physicians, true healers who will help you fight your battle.

If you chose the latter, this book is for you. It is also for family members and friends seeking to help their loved ones recover from a brain injury or illness. Even though this book is specifically about brain abnormalities due to injury or disease, the principles espoused in this book can be applied to any disease or injury.

Chrissy’s Song not only gives procedures and available substances that can help people who have suffered brain injuries or diseases not advertised by the dominant and politically run medical profession. It also challenges the concept of incurable that the medical establishment puts on these brain abnormalities. Further, each procedure and each substance whether mineral, vitamin, herb, or chemical substance is backed by scientific research. Chrissy’s Song will change the way you look at any disease or injury. This book challenges the often-quick prognosis of incurable.

Throughout human history, the naysayers have always seemed to be the dominant voice in any human endeavor. Humans can’t fly. Nobody can run a mile in four minutes. Definitely, humans can’t make it to the moon, let alone walk on it. Every human endeavor had people who did everything they could to stop adventurous people from challenging the status quo.

Unfortunately, these naysayers were directly and indirectly responsible for causing millions of deaths and untold misery over the last century as it related to health issues. For example, penicillin sat on the shelf for twelve years before the medical profession embraced its ability to fight infection. To make matters worse, it was the medical doctor telling the patient their disease was incurable and they had X months to live that caused the most damage. It always amazes me that people actually believed another human being who had no ability to see into the future. These inflicted people usually died almost to the day the doctor said they would.

Hundreds of years ago, there existed limited knowledge and treatments in this country for many conditions. However, with chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy along with a host of research of many natural substances made readily available through the Internet, it becomes inexcusable for any doctor to label a condition incurable, especially when he knows very little of other healing arts.

However, like in any human endeavor, there were awakenings that the masses experienced. One such awakening occurred in 1895, the year Daniel David Palmer discovered chiropractic. As the profession grew, people began to get well from conditions that in the past were considered incurable. Without chiropractic care, these people had little choice but to live with their health conditions with little or no relief. In the early decades after the chiropractic discovery, people did not think in terms of incurable but recognized the infinite ability of their body to heal. You see, chiropractic espoused the philosophy that no doctor heals anybody but simply assists the body in reaching balance. This allows the body to do what man cannot: heal. Health consciousness began to permeate the country.

The resurgence in health care gradually gave way to sick care. Instead of taking care of their bodies by obtaining the proper nutrition and seeking out those healing professions like chiropractic that worked to strengthen the inherent healing ability of the body, people began taking the easy way out. People began eating poorly and not taking care of their bodies. Instead of pursuing health care, they chose sick care. That is, when they got sick, they sought out drugs to get rid of the symptoms quickly. People became perpetually sick, never seeming to get well and forever taking drugs. Without people getting well, the mantra of the incurable condition reeled its ugly head once again.

But there is again good news. In the last few decades, people have begun to ignore pessimistic prognoses and have taken responsibility for their own health and recovery. They are beginning to understand yet again that their body has a great capacity to heal itself.

Consider cancer, one of the most feared diseases. In the not too distant past, people who were diagnosed with cancer considered it a death sentence and waited to die. Now, people who are diagnosed with cancer no longer consider it a death sentence. They also do not limit themselves to treatments from the medical profession. Some people use only medical treatments; others combine medical treatments with lifestyle changes and incorporate chiropractic, naturopathy, and homeopathy while others use only natural methods and forego any medical treatment.

Freedom to choose your method of health care is a fundamental American right that government, drug companies, and the medical profession try hard to prevent you from exercising that right. Once you have accepted the fact that nothing is incurable, Chrissy’s Song shows you that you must work to uncover the full range of treatments that are available so you can truly choose your method of health care. In fact, I was stunned at all the treatments that were available for brain injury.

Also remember this one thing: incurable only applies when a person is dead. NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!

Lastly, all the above reasons lead to the most important goal of the book. That is, encourage more people to care for their loved ones at home rather than putting them in a poorly run institution. At the same time, I would like to encourage change to our health care system to support family caregivers.

Presently, if your loved one becomes seriously injured or has a disease requiring round the clock care, you are usually given only one choice: institutionalized care. The cost of institutional care is picked up by the insurance company and then by Medicare and Medicaid. Of course, these institutions will provide minimal to poor care with no emphasis on improving the patient’s condition.

If by chance you opt to take your loved one home and provide excellent care unmatched by any institution, most of the cost will be on you. If you are lucky, insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid will pay for medical supplies. While the institution gets reimbursement for any personnel that provide care to a patient, you, on the other hand, are expected to work for free. The institution charges for the room and every service they provide. They profit for providing substandard care, but you have to quit your job in order to provide care full-time. Any changes that need to be made to make your house handicap compliant for your loved one are all on you financially.

If an institution needs something for a patient, they buy the item needed and simply add some profit to the price of the item and charge the insurance company or state. You, however, are not so fortunate. Insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid get off the hook when a family decides to care for their loved one. The family caregiver provides great loving care for their loved one, and the institution provides mediocre care for their patient complete with abuse, neglect, infections, and bedsores.

Home care nursing is an option sometimes given to people who don’t qualify for institutional care. More often than not, you will have to search for the right program and then fight for it. Home care is another part of a highly profitable health care system where one nurse and/or aide is dispatched to the home to care for the patient. The patient might qualify for eight hours, sixteen hours, or in rare cases, twenty-four hours of nursing.

I like to say this is a better option, but I can’t. Not only does the patient have a high chance of getting poorly qualified nurses and aides that provide substandard care, but there is nobody watching them. Usually, the family caregiver is either working or trying to get some sleep when these nurses are providing care. To make matters worse, the patient is usually unable to speak up when neglect and abuse occur.

You read all the time in the papers where a family had a nurse at home caring for a loved one, and the nurse failed to take care of the loved one’s needs. I have talked to people who tell me their horror stories. Family caregivers have found their nurses sleeping when their loved one needed suctioning of their airway. A mucous-filled airway could lead to pneumonia or worse, brain damage. Other caregivers found that their nurse failed to change diapers, a definite prescription for bedsores. Some caregivers were angry when they caught a nurse not only neglecting their loved one’s pleas for help but were verbally abusing them as well.

This option should be the better of the two, and it is when you are able to get good, competent nurses. I talked with one father who needed round the clock nursing. He told me it took a little while before he got nurses that he could trust to properly care for his son. Fortunately for me, I have had pretty much a positive experience with home nursing. The second time I had home nursing for Christina, I was fortunate to have a nurse that provided excellent care.

I propose a third option. Instead of forcing families to go through financial ruin in order for them to take home their loved one and care for them, the following should occur. Insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid should pay the families for providing care, especially since family caregivers have been proven to provide superior care. The state and federal governments along with insurance companies need to acknowledge and accept that family caregivers provide superior care to the disabled.

Why is it when family caregivers do the same work better, they do not receive any compensation? Why is it that insurance companies, Medicare, and Medicaid get off the hook when a family wants to care for their loved one? I had a politician ask me if I needed to have a nurse to come and watch my daughter a couple days a week so I could go and work. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In his eyes, I did nothing meaningful. I told him, What the hell do you think I am doing when I provide twenty-four-hour care for my daughter? Playing?

It was amazing to see a politician ready to have Medicaid pay for a nurse to care for Christina so I could work because in his eyes, I wasn’t really doing anything of value when I cared for Christina. This archaic thinking must give way to the modern ways. Just forty years ago, people were encouraged not to care for a loved one at home. That is what institutions were for. Those that bucked the system were looked upon as eccentric.

Today, millions care for their loved ones at home. New Jersey alone has about one million family caregivers. The way the government looks upon family caregivers must change. The first thing that must be done is to recognize that they actually perform a very difficult job. Once that fact finally gets into society’s mindset, they might then see that family caregivers provide the safest and most cost-effective care than care provided by the medical profession.

The cost to care for my daughter in an institution would be over 10,000 dollars a month plus the expense of treating bedsores and infections that usually occur in places like this. These additional expenses can run into the thousands every month. In contrast, a caregiver can be paid 10,000 dollars per month and still save insurance companies and the state tens of thousands a year.

Christina is thirty-seven years old. It is hard to believe that we are now in the sixteenth year of caring for her. During the last sixteen years, she has never been hospitalized for an infection or bedsore. Never! By choosing to care for my daughter, I saved the taxpayer thousands of dollars. I also saved my daughter from a living hell. Care by family caregivers has been proven to be cost effective in its application and healthy for the patient.

I am not calling for the elimination of institutions or home nursing care but the elevation of family caregivers to their rightful place, the place that they have earned. At the same time, I am calling for the overhaul of institutions and the home nursing care system to remove the abuse and neglect, making these two options a viable alternative for those that cannot or don’t want to care for a loved one at home. I want to put back freedom in a country that used to pride itself on being free. I know of no greater freedom than to exercise the most personal and important right of them all: the right for every human being to choose their method of health care for themselves and their family.

You probably figured out that I am no fan of the medical profession. I just believe that those engaged in the healing arts should not be responsible for a patient’s death but for their healing. And I am pretty sure that infections, abuse, and neglect should not be part of health care. There are a lot of good medical personnel that care and strive to heal people. However, the medical professional is a huge bureaucracy, and unfortunately, like the government, people aren’t its first priority.

But there is hope. Recently, some medical doctors have brought to light mistakes that they made that caused patient injury or death. It is a frank and honest article. These doctors seem to have learned from their mistakes and have tried to make changes in the medical profession to reduce injury and death.

There are programs in some states that do pay family caregivers for caring for their loved ones at home. Finding them is tough. It took me about two weeks of daily calls to various government agencies until I stumbled on the correct program. Bureaucracy is a bitch to navigate. In New Jersey, it is called the Personal Preference Program, and in West Virginia, it is called Personal Options. Some states have programs that respect the family caregivers while others are still in the dark ages. Expect to fight for everything but never give up. Your loved one is counting on you.

3

Why?

Why did this happen to my son? Why did this happen to my daughter? Why did this happen to me? Why? Why? Why? Why did God allow it? Why didn’t God protect him? Where is God now? What is the purpose of this tragedy?

Before I continue about my situation and the contents of this book, I feel it is important to address the anger, frustration, and fear that is associated with a tragedy. First and foremost, it is human to experience these emotions. But if not dealt with, it can negatively affect your health. And if you are planning to care for your loved one, you are going to need all the health you can get. Providing care for somebody, especially full-time, takes quite a toll on an individual. You don’t need the added internal turmoil from unrestrained emotions.

Just as important is the effect that unresolved intense emotions have on your loved one. Whether you think they are able to hear and understand you or not, they can. Even if you are able to withhold all angry speech, I can assure you your loved one can feel your emotions.

I am going to offer my humble opinion on a complicated subject for the sole purpose to help you deal with a shocking and overwhelming situation. Like with all subject matter in this book, you are encouraged to investigate and research every topic presented. Mindless people help no one.

My goal for this little chapter is to open your mind enough so you can find peace. It is unfortunate that peace escapes most people because they refuse to venture out of their belief system. Remember, in this life, no man or woman, no religion, and no government has the complete truth. It is the lifelong journey of finding truth that we grow as spiritual beings. It is the discovery of things on the journey and not the destination that is important. Find peace because your health and the health of your loved depend on it.

You will be the most effective if you remember one important fact. It isn’t about you. Yes, the accident or tragic event will cause you to be in shock. You will desperately try to make sense of the tragedy. This is normal and can be pursued, but it must never consume you to the point that you become ineffective, or worse, immobilized.

One of my big beefs against the dominating medical profession is their archaic, unsubstantiated view that people are nothing more than organic machines. Therefore, a person in a coma can’t hear you. Or if a person seems to be unable to communicate, this person is deemed by the medical profession unable to understand whether by hearing or by sight anything that goes on around them.

This is untrue. Time and time again, a person wakes from a coma to report how he or she heard every word that was said around them. Some have expressed anger at what was said about them. That’s why I continue to be amazed that these assumptions are still being perpetuated by supposedly intelligent people, regardless of the absence of facts to support these assumptions.

The effects of the tragedy will ease up in time. Spend some of your time becoming knowledgeable about the condition your loved one is facing, and seek out everything you can find that may help them. Then spend some time seeking out people, places, and books that you feel may help you find peace.

The best advice I can give you is do not prejudge or stereotype subjects you are unfamiliar with or take somebody else’s opinion on something as gospel. Keep an open mind.

4

The Infectious Wait

After we were notified by phone