Gerdi Gutperle Foundation

{ Current information, January 2009

Report by the Heilpraktiker (alternative practitioner) Justin Guest about his experiences at the Gerdi Gutperle Agasthiyr Muni Child Care Centre (GGAMCCC) in southern India in January 2009

In January 2009, I had the opportunity to assist the GGAMCCC by contributing my services as a myoreflex therapist. The GGAMCCC, which opened one year ago, is a foundation hospital where holistic medicine is practiced. Its patients are children up to twelve years of age.

In this context, a holistic approach means that each young patient’s parents can choose between naturopathic physicians and allopathic doctors, or can opt for a mixture of both methods.

In addition to pediatricians, the hospital’s staff also includes a homeopathic physician as well as a Siddha physician. She practices Siddha medicine: similar to Ayurvedic medicine, Siddha medicine is one of three forms of natural medical treatment that originated in India more than 4,000 years ago.

Alongside these various therapeutic forms, myoreflex therapy in the tradition of Dr. Kurt Mosetter is also practiced at the GGAMCCC.

The holistic approach will undergo further expansion in the future. Plans for coming months call for the hiring of occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers.
Also planned for the future are educational guided tours of the hospital’s herb garden. These tours will be led by the Siddha physician. The underlying idea here is to familiarize mothers and parents with the various herbs, which they can afterwards use to augment their families’ diets. Nutritional deficiency caused by improper dietary habits is a significant factor here, so such tours could be genuinely enriching.

The basic idea of the hospital is to provide cost-free medical treatment for needy children, irregardless of their religious affiliations or cultural origins.

Families that are more affluent can also have their children treated at the GGAMCCC in exchange for appropriate payment. The amount to be paid is determined by a sliding scale and depends upon the parents’ income.

To improve contacts with impoverished children and their parents, so-called “camps” are also conducted.

At present, a team of physicians, nurses and caregivers makes weekly visits to various villages in the region to provide medical assistance and to offer educational advice about how to prevent illness.

Also among the hospital’s services is a free pickup service for parents of patients who cannot avail themselves of other transportation options.

During my two-week stay, we also had numerous opportunities to treat many children with myoreflex therapy.
Thanks to the myoreflex therapy offered by the two physiotherapists who practice onsite, and thanks to the therapy administered by German colleagues during earlier stays in India, myoreflex therapy has become increasingly more popular with the local people.

Together with other German colleagues (the therapist Brigitte Harrer, Dr. Kurt Mosetter, Dr. Manuela Kaess, Dr. Eberhard Jörn and my wife Helga) we were able to treat as many as 35 children with myoreflex therapy in the hospital each day. A continually increasing need for myoreflex therapy is also to be expected in the future.

We were able to help many children to make good progress during our stay.
We achieved successes in the treatment of a wide variety of ailments: e.g. improvements in infantile cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, spasticity, various other developmental disorders, and in the after-effects of surgical operations.

The collaboration during our stay between allopathic and naturopathic physicians was also praiseworthy. In each case, this unique collaboration enabled us to optimally decide on an individual basis whether an allopathic or a naturopathic approach was most appropriate for the co-treatment or continued treatment of each patient.

Through her active assistance and her help with the work in the hospital, and especially through the affection, attention and love that she practices and shows, Gerdi Gutperle, who founded and initiated the GGAMCCC exemplarily demonstrates the tremendous importance of direct contact between a caregiver and each individual child.
This is inestimably important and helpful for everyone, including those of us who are active as therapists.
We thank Gerdi Gutperle’s personal dedication and commitment, which have made it possible for many little patients to see a doctor for the first time in their lives, here and onsite. Such medical attention is urgently necessary in the majority of cases. Active help of this kind offers many children new chances for a brighter future.

Another advantage is that Gerdi Gutperle’s contributions as an artist make it possible to offer a hospital stay that’s in harmony with nature. In addition to the many paintings which were painted by Mrs. Gutperle herself, sun-drenched ponds full of fish in the central waiting area provide relaxing entertainment for the children in the hospital. The ensuing stress reduction is a genuine enrichment for the little girls and boys who are the hospital’s patients.

Of course, many memories remain with me from my journey to India and from my work at the GGAMCCC, as well as a strong desire to return there.

I also look forward to seeing some patients again, and this eagerness is coupled with my curiosity to see how much progress toward recovery they will have made.

Indeed, India and I shall surely meet again!

Justin Guest
Heilpraktiker (alternative practitioner)

The Gerdi Gutperle Foundation
Industriestraße 25
68519 Viernheim

Telephone:
+49 (0)6204 / 9191 - 0
Fax:
+49 (0)6204 / 9191 - 50
Email:
info@gerdi-gutperle-stiftung.de
Internet:
www.gerdi-gutperle-stiftung.de


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