Healing from chronic pain after a bad accident
Thieu van Deuren (63), Weert (Netherlands)
At the age of 23 (in 1965) I had an auto accident. My left thigh was shattered. Because of my generally bad health they could only operate a month after the accident; my father had prevented an amputation. In the middle of my left thigh about ten centimetres of bone was really crushed. The surgeon inserted a steel bar from the knee to the hip. Afterward I had terrible pain. They told me I had to learn to live with that.
Pain every day for years
Two months after my hospital stay of almost a year I was almost dying of pain, so an opiate was prescribed form me. It helped, but had unpleasant side-effects. I was in a stupor and slept most of the time. Since I didn't want to become dependent on the opiate I turned to alcohol and tobacco to deaden the pain. But when that almost ended my marriage, I gave up alcohol. So I clenched my teeth and suffered through every day. It was horrible; there was not a minute without pain. I was persecuted day and night by the continual pain that radiated from the hip to my toes. Over the many years I visited several hypnotists, but the most they achieved was ten pain-free minutes. I was only able to walk a little around the house. I didn't cycle at all any more because afterward I would have even more pain for about two days. I was often unable to go to sleep in bed because I couldn't find the right position. I could never get a full night's sleep. I would always be awakened a few times every night by the pain and have to seek a new position.
Finally pain-free!
I learned of Bruno Gröning from a friend and was introduced to his teaching on February 2, 1999. During the first community hour I separated myself inwardly from all the suffering. At the time I felt nothing, but when I returned home I was able to walk up and down the stairs - not easily or without pain, but significantly better and more easily. Since then I have done einstellen to the Heilstrom* twice a day for half an hour and have regularly attended the community hours. During the third or fourth visit I felt the stream for the first time. I felt a tingling in my hands and feet. The pain in my leg has slowly gone away. Since September, 1999 I have been able to do everything again and have been completely pain-free. Now I can walk for hours with my dog. Cycling, too, is possible again, and I sleep the whole night through without interruption. I can't find the words to express how grateful I am to be liberated from the long years of pain.
Medical commentary:
Mr. van Deuren had a traffic accident in which his left thigh was shattered. But after operative care severe pain remained. He was under medical treatment for years. Finally he was officially declared "severely handicapped". Chronic pain syndromes that last for years, whatever the cause, are very difficult to influence. Therefore the regression of the pain syndrome after the introduction to the teaching of Bruno Gröning is all the more astonishing. After a course of decades this would no longer have been expected from a medical point of view.
Matthias Kamp, M.D.
