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Our Story
"Will I live or die?" Jackie said in a distorted voice." The doctors think this is it but I'd like to pray for you if that's okay with you my darling?" I replied "Do what you think is best" were Jackie's last coherent words.
Jackie was 49 we had been married since 1972 but in April 1999 we took what was to become known as the cruise of death. A flu virus swept the ship and over 500 people got sick they actually ran out of ordinary OTC medication. Jackie was one of the flu victims but was to become the unluckiest passenger on board. She sneezed and coughed simultaneously and the violent whip lash action dissected her carotid artery but no one knew it had happened. She was taken off the ship in a wheel chair and rushed to the emergency room the next morning because she couldn't breath. The injury tried to heal and caused a clot totally occluding the artery causing her to have a massive stroke loosing 85% of the left hemisphere of her brain which paralyzed her right side, made her 95% blind and completely mute.
This is an actual MRI the white area is the damage to Jackie's brain.
The doctors gave her little to no chance of surviving the night but when she did they predicted pneumonia would cause a code blue with 48 hours since she couldn't control her saliva from running down into her lungs. Her lungs were already infected from the flu with bronchitis, pleurisy and bronchial asthma so pneumonia was a given. Some how she survived only to have the damaged portion of her brain swell half an inch and crush the other side into the inner wall of her scull. The neurologist and brain surgeon gave her 2 hours to live because the swelling had begun to force it's way down her spine so they asked me to consent to cutting a hole in her scull and placing the removed piece of bone into her stomach to keep it alive for the next 96 hours if she lived that long. I knew Jackie would not want to survive to live as a vegetable totally dependant on others so after prayer and consulting with family we refused. The surgeon was visibly angry and without my knowledge went with a nurse to speak to Jackie our son Hayne who was 24 at the time accompanied them. To every one's amazement an inexplicable miracle happened Jackie spoke "My husband will make the call" and she went mute again.
"I'm sorry Mr. & Mrs. Wolmarans your wife has reach a plateau and we do not expect to see any further recovery so the insurance can no longer pay for her therapy" This was five months after being discharged from hospital and Jackie was confined to a wheel chair. Traditional medical science had given up but our fight for her recovery had just lifted to a new level.
We began our search for a cure by doing acupuncture for six months three times a week. We also researched natural health alternatives which were extremely helpful.
Dr William Hammesfahr
We went to Tampa, Florida where doctor William Hammesfahr (web site address for Dr Hammesfahr www.hni-online.com) whose treatment included vascular dilation. Once Jackie's veins were enlarged he increased her blood pressure using salt to force the blood to flow more strongly into her brain. In 2000, this work resulted in approval for the first patent in history granted for the treatment of neurological diseases including coma, stroke, brain injury, cerebral palsy, hypoxic injuries and other neurovascular disorders with medications that restore blood flow to the brain. It was extended to treat successfully disabilities including ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Tourette's and Autism as well as behaviorally and emotionally disturbed children, seizures and severe migraines.
Unfortunately the treatment produced minimal improvements but hazardous side effects of grand maul seizures. The seizures started after the first week of treatment. We did not initially recognize the relationship between the treatment and the seizures because Jackie was placed on anti seizure medication. We were so committed to Dr Hammesfahr's procedure that we moved from San Diego, California to Tampa, Florida for three months in the summer of 2000 so we could attend the Hammesfahr Neurological Institute three times a week. We continued using his protocol for six months and the seizure medication for five years.
Prophet Joshua Lagos, Nigeria
In October 2000 we heard about an African pastor in Lagos, Nigeria who was having phenomenal miracles. Prophet Joshua had 20,000 people attending church on Sunday and many of his congregation had been healed of every conceivable disease including aids. I viewed videos of blind eyes being opened, paralyzed people walking and open weeping infections being healed. I began to fast and pray believing that this was God's direction for us to follow.
We called and tried to make an appointment explaining that we were flying from California for prayer. The coordinator asked if we had been invited to come by the prophet. This didn't compute how could he invite us if he didn't know of us? We said we would stay in a hotel and come for prayer on Sunday but we were told that we had to stay on campus if we expected prayer.
We booked our airfare and set off with great expectancy. The accommodations at the church were very primitive. We slept on a mattress on the floor in a room shared by five people divided by a curtain for one week. We were given approximately 50 hours of videos to watch in preparation for the big day. During this week I completed the 40 day fast without food just drinking water and began to eat small amounts of food prepared in the kitchen of the church.
After three days I was told that because Prophet Joshua had not invited us he would not prayer for Jackie. We were absolutely devastated and could not understand such a policy. Nevertheless all hope was not lost because we were told that he was praying for God to tell him if he should prayer for her.
On Sunday we were escorted to a designated seating area for foreigners for the longest church service I've every attended it started at 8 am and finished at 4 pm. At one point pastor Joshua went into a designated area where over 700 people awaited prayer. It seemed as the sick had every disease known to man. Jackie & I witnessed blind eyes beginning to see again, crippled and paralyzed people walking it was like bible days. The prophet prayed for over four hours for these people and for all the foreign visitors but ignored Jackie. In desperation I called out to him but his assistants told me to be quiet. We were then ushered back to our seats.
At the conclusion of this marathon service we were told that prophet Joshua would speak to us in the morning. We were given an official written invitation to return for prayer but were told to wait for the call.
So we traveled to South Africa and waited for the call which never came. I called the church in Nigeria approximately 100 times a day for the next 30 days. Most of the calls did not go through, and many times I received busy signals. On a few rare occasions I got to speak with someone and left a message but my calls were never returned. I was never able to speak to the prophet directly and was constantly told to be patient. We spent Christmas and New Year waiting and after 30 days decided to return to Lagos.
This time we booked ourselves into a hotel and caught a taxi to the church on Sunday morning. But we were turned away because we were Westerners and sick. We were not permitted to sit amongst the regular African attendees and there were no seats available in the guest section. We asked if we could sit with the sick people who had come for prayer but we were told that these people had lined up since 5 am that morning to get a number and that section was also full. At this point the feeling of rejection was more than either of us could bear and we asked the taxi driver to take us to a church that was more Christian and compassionate.
Finally the chief organizer came outside into the parking lot and said that Prophet Joshua had made an exception and permitted us to sit with the guests provided we promised not to call out for prayer. After another grueling 8 hour service we were told that the prophet wanted to speak to us so we waited in a café attached to the kitchen for five hours. At 9 pm all the foreign visitors began boarding a courtesy bus for the airport this was our last call and suddenly we were summoned to his office and given $1,500 to help offset our expenses. Then we were told to wait for an official invitation to return for prayer that was six years ago we are still waiting.
During 2001 we implemented a number of protocols such as placing four magnets each 2 foot wide by 6 foot long under our regular mattress to improve Jackie's electrical and blood flow. This has been supported with Neurological Development Therapy (NDT) two hours a day five days a week ($70 per hour). But as sometimes as is the case things ago from bad to worse. Her NDT therapist noticed that Jackie's vision had worsened the ophthalmologist found that a cataract had grown over her right eye as result of the steroids given to Jackie in intensive care to reduce the swelling of her brain. To give you an idea of just how poor her eye sight was, if your vision is 20/40 the DMV will require that you wear glasses to drive, if your vision is 20/200 you are certified as medically blind, well Jackie's was 20/400 in that eye. Modern medicine came to our rescue and lens replacement surgery was done which brought her vision back to 20/20 but because of the stroke damage only half of her vision in each was functioning. To use an illustration it's as if you sliced an orange in half, half her eye was completely blind and the other half had 20/20 vision.
There were times when we felt we couldn't go on exhausted from the day to struggles of just surviving while all the time searching for a solution. We reflected at these times on the day I walked into Jackie's recovery room with her ballroom dancing shoes and nailed them to the wall with this note "If you have the courage I have the faith".
In September of that year we moved to Mission Viejo, California to undergo treatment at the Brain Therapeutics Medical Clinic. Dr Steenblock's has a hyperbaric chamber where Jackie did 82 dives at $100 per dive. She also did acupuncture and hypoxia treatment. The idea behind oxygen deprivation is that it forces the heart to grow stronger in order to maintain the oxygen level which is depleted. Russian Olympic athletes are often trained for months on end at high altitudes to accomplish the same thing. We did not notice any improvement from the hyperbaric oxygen treatments.
Dr Oral Roberts
Jackie and I have always admired and respected Dr Oral Roberts as a wonderful sincere minister of the gospel. His mission to bringing God's healing power to the world raised tremendous opposition. It was a controversial ministry yet many testimonies have been given from people who claim they were healed. We were extremely fortunate to know Dr Roberts personally and on one of our visits to his modest home in California I asked him, his late wife Evelyn and Dr Richard Roberts their son to pray for Jackie.
Over the years since Jackie's stroke many of the well known evangelists of our generation have prayed for Jackie along with thousands of Christians around the world. We believe if it was not for these dear ones praying that Jackie would have died.
Auctioneer for Cruise Line
Jackie's medical expenses had used all our savings and the last of our investments had to be pulled the week after 9/11 so we lost 40% of its value. Until March 1999 I had served as a Pastor in San Diego but since Jackie's traumatic brain injury I had taken care of her on a full time basis. Now I had to find a job where I could take Jackie to work with me or work from home fortunately I got job as an art auctioneer on one of the major cruise lines. You can no doubt imaging the mental torment of going back to place where everything went so wrong but on the other hand it was a perfect solution. They did all the domestic chores, Jackie was safe and I could earn while we traveled the world. My contracts were short usually 6 to 8 weeks at a time while on board I did Jackie's therapy but when at home we hired a professional therapist.
Dr Barth Green of the University of Miami Medical Research Center
Fortune smiled on us in the midst of this great ordeal because Dr Barth Green of the University of Miami Medical Research Center happened to be a VIP on one of our cruises. Dr Green has pioneered research for over 25 years with spinal cord injury which results in paralyses. The late Christopher Reeves was one of his patients and also contributed to the research. Dr Green spent an hour with us in our cabin after which he invited us to visit his center. We were offered an opportunity to have vision restoration therapy in the Neurological department. The Wall Street Journal did an article on Nova Vision.
Nova Vision: Wall Street Journal Feature: NovaVision VRT™ Research & Improvements for Stroke Vision Loss Patient
The Wall Street Journal Health story, Reversing Partial Blindness reports on VRT™ as "A Revolution in Neuroscience," and describes how VRT can restore the vision of patients who have suffered partial blindness as a result of a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
Jackie's vision at the commencement of this program was tested at 52% of a normal visual field. After nine months of two 30 minute sessions per day her vision was 81% of a normal vision field. Here is a press release given by Jackie.
VRT Press release June 12, 2006 Jackie Wolmarans
"I lost 50% of my vision on the right side after suffering a severe stroke in 1999 which affected 85% of the left hemisphere of my brain. I began VRT in 2004 and the results were so good that I continued therapy twice daily for nine months. My husband worked for a cruise line so we traveled extensively although it was difficult at times I was committed to the treatment & took the equipment with us on our travels. The loss of sight in the lower right quadrant meant I could not read and always had difficulty finding stuff on my right side.
My vision improved to 81 % so I can now read menus at restaurants and directional signs inside airport terminals when traveling. I seldom loose my lipstick on the dresser even if it is on the right side. I enjoy watching TV I don't miss any of the action and our art collection is as lovely as it was pre-stroke. One of the things us ladies indulge ourselves in is our make up and now I can do this for myself. Thank you Nora Vision for restoring my vision and for coloring my world again.
I highly recommend VRT as a safe and effective treatment. I'm convinced that any patient who diligently sticks to the instructions will have improvement in their vision. I'm eternally grateful for this scientific breakthrough in vision technology."
Here is the actual VRT final report.
Dear Dr. and Mrs. Wolmarans:
As you can see, the improvement is significant and we thank you for your effort and commitment.
I'm looking forward to see you soon at the Clinic.
Best regards,
Iszet Campo-Bustillo.
University of Miami
Department of Neurology
Conducted by Nova Vision their web site is www.novavision.com.
Stem Cell Therapy in Tijuana Mexico
During my research seeking a medical protocol to reverse the damage caused by the stroke I heard about the potential of stem cell therapy. The possibilities ignited our faith and hope but alas no one in America was treating patients with stem cells. I found a reputable clinic in Tijuana Mexico that linked to American scientists. Their research was cutting edge but the application was based on speculation and theory. Nevertheless we were pioneers at heart and were convinced that stem cells held the key to the restoration and rejuvenation of Jackie neurons. So in January 2003 Jackie submitted herself to experimental research receiving 2 million umbilical cord blood stem cells via IV at a cost of $10,000 for one injection. This clinic has now treated hundreds of patients with amazing results.
Stem Cell Therapy in China
In November 2005 Jackie had a spiritual experience that would alter the course of our lives “I had a vision while I was doing therapy this morning in the cabin” Jackie said as I entered after an auction. “I saw myself in a hospital in China receiving stem cells please go on the internet and check that out for me?” she said. I tried to reason with her that if people were receiving stem cell therapy any where in the world then surely the whole world know about it since it is such a controversial subject. But she was emphatic saying I know what I saw is true.
Over the Christmas holidays I was able to do the research and to my amazement I discovered a hospital in China had just started administrating umbilical cord stem cells to Westerners in that November. They invited us to come for treatment naturally my mind flooded with questions and concerns about the quality of medical treatment, diseases, contamination, screening standards and the general living conditions in China. Once again our pioneering spirit and dedication to Jackie’s recovery empowered me to resign my job of four years and take Jackie to China for sixty days. The results have been nothing short of miraculous in fact we were so excited about what happened that I felt compelled to produce a DVD called “The Gift of Hope” of our experience .
Her first improvement was the return of the sensation of hunger and the feeling of being satisfied after eating. Most women would love not having the feeling of being hungry. Then the droop of Jackie’s right side of her face disappeared and a general sense of well being flooded her body. Her right foot started to move on command about 3 inches which is huge since it was totally paralyzed for seven years. The strength of her hamstring went from a 1/5 to a 2/5 giving us enough movement to do physical therapy on it for the first time. Her right arm that had been very weak suddenly gained strength and control. During the sixty days Jackie had seven spinal cord injections and five IV’s of umbilical cord stem cells totaling between 120 million and 150 million cells. She current holds the record for the receiving the most stem cells in the world.
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