FWD:RSD World News-Mystery of the mind

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From: byrd45 (Original Message) Sent: 10/5/2006 5:55 PM
This Report and Video Broadcast is taken from http://www.rsdfound<WBR>ation.org/<WBR>index.html
where you can see the original. I have been monitoring this treatment since its early use in Germany and know people who have had the positive effects from it.
Below is the transcript of the CNN Report on Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy and below that is the link to the Video feed.



Mystery of the Mind



PAULA ZAHN



But,right now, we are going to explore a "Mystery of the Mind" dealing withpain, a kind of pain most of us can't even imagine. You are about tomeet a girl who mysteriously developed pain that was so excruciating,<WBR>so intense, that it made normal life unbearable. Her only relief turnedout to be a radical and extreme treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over)<WBR>: In just a matter of months, Lindsay Wurtenberg went from an enthusiastic 14-year-old dancer to a desperate wheel-chair-<WBR>bound teenager.

LINDSAY WURTENBERG, CHRONIC PAIN PATIENT: I became suicidal. If I wasable to walk, I probably would have tried killing myself.

ZAHN: As incredible as it seems, the tragedy that befell this NewJersey girl was caused by a normally harmless nonlethal spider bit.

L. WURTENBERG: It was almost like a stabbing in my leg, like I wasbeing stabbed by someone, like, over and over and over again, and 24/7,just never went away.

ZAHN: Lindsay was diagnosed with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. More than a million Americans suffer from it.

Simply put, it's the mind and body overreacting to an injury. The painneurons triggered by the trauma mysteriously go haywire and cause achain reaction of even more pain. Experts compare it to a car enginerevving out of control.

Lindsay's excruciating pain moved from her right thigh, where thespider bit her, to both legs, then both arms, then her back. Her bodybecame so sensitive that even the light touch of a blanket wasunbearable. She wasn't able to walk, go to school, or do anything.

DR. ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN, CHAIRMAN OF NEUROLOGY DEPARTMENT, DREXELUNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: She was in a wheelchair. She hadn'twalked for seven months. And she -- she's a teenager. So, she hadabsolutely no life. You really couldn't touch her anywhere.

ZAHN: Lindsay's physician, Dr. Robert Schwartzman, is chairman of thethe Neurology Department at Drexel University College of Medicine. Evenwith a diagnosis, he couldn't tell Lindsay why this injury, whichusually heals normally, triggered unbearable chronic pain.

SCHWARTZMAN: Some people think it's a susceptibility. Others think it'sthe circumstances of the injury. We just don't know.

ZAHN: Lindsay tried painful physical therapy, dozens of pain- reducingmedications<WBR>, frequent hospitalizations. Nothing worked.

Then, her mother heard about an experimental treatment, something sodesperate and extreme, it will shock you. Lindsay's mother decided toput her daughter into a coma -- yes, a coma.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt I had no otheroption. What else am I going to do? She couldn't take care of herself.She couldn't walk. She wasn't going to school. She had no interest inanything. All she talked about was dying, actually. She constantlysaid: I don't even want to live. This is just too much. I can't bear itanymore.

SCHWARTZMAN: The patients that we put incoma are intractable. They have failed everything. They have failed allknown treatments for pain. They absolutely have no quality of life. Idon't think there's a worse pain problem.

ZAHN: Since the treatment is not approved by the FDA, Lindsay and herparents traveled to see Dr. Schwartzman'<WBR>s colleagues in Germany. There,she was given a continuous intravenous cocktail of anesthetics toinduce a coma.

The theory is, the coma allows the constant throbbing pain connectionsfrom the body to the brain to reset, like a computer reboot. For fivedays, powerful drugs surged through Lindsay's veins. She needed aventilator to breathe.

L. WURTENBERG: I remember dreams that I had when I was in a coma, just really weird things, me floating in air.

JOHN WURTENBERG, FATHER OF LINDSAY WURTENBERG: The five days felt like five months. It was the longest five days of my life.

ZAHN: The stress didn't end when Lindsay was finally broughtout of the coma. L. WURTENBERG: They told us about, there will be sideeffects. And she woke up and didn't know us. It just wasn't mydaughter. And I was very scared. And then, when she did come out twodays after the coma, when she came back to herself, when she mentionedour names, she knew who we were, and we knew we had our little girlback.

ZAHN: Amazingly, Lindsay was almost pain free.

L. WURTENBERG: I feel better. And mom is getting on my nerves.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like we got Lindsay back.

ZAHN: According to Dr. Schwartzman, the experimental coma has workedfor almost half of the nearly 30 patients he has sent to Germany,returning them to a normal life.

The treatment is controversial. Critics think that inducing a coma isrisky, but worth further investigation. Dr. Schwartzman agrees. He hashundreds of patients on his waiting list, desperate people, likeLindsay, whose lives have been crushed by sharp, constant andmysterious pain.

More than two years after her coma, Lindsay Wurtenberg is walking,going to school, dreaming of becoming a fashion designer. Occasionally,<WBR>she has a little pain, but nothing compared to before the coma. Sheneeds booster injections of pain medication every so often, but that'sthe new normal for this high schooler who is thankful to finally haveher life back.

L. WURTENBERG: I'm not in a wheelchair. I just finished my whole yearof school, which I haven't done that since Germany. So, it's amazing. Ifeel really good right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And you can see why.

Another thing to add: Dr. Schwartzman is working with some newantiinflammatory drugs which show great promise in helping patientswith reflex sympathetic dystrophy. But, for patients like Lindsay, whorespond to absolutely nothing, the coma treatment is currently the onlyoption.

And Dr. Schwartzman is hoping to send even more of his patients to Germany by the end of the year for that treatment.