12/22/24
May 18, 2004
The Healer.: WNBA player DeLisha Milton-Jones tore her ACL in February while practicing, an injury confirmed by two MRIs. Instead of the typical surgery, she opted to use Austrian physician Dr. Mohammad Khalifa's "knee tissue manipulation." Milton-Jones returned to practice in two months rather than the typical six. Is there another explanation, or is Khalifa's method legitimate?
posted by dusted to basketball at 04:33 PM - 8 comments
There's quite a few people, myself included, that believe people are natural healers and we lose the ability to heal over time if we do not practice it. There are many types of 'hand's on' healings. I have helped people with Reiki. It really does work in most cases and reduces suffering of pain in extreme circumstances. I wouldn't recommend someone, though, not getting a second opinion from a doctor. Sometimes, modern medicine can do what natural healing cannot. If you would like to know more about Reiki, just ask here and I will post more or e-mail me.
posted by jasonspaceman at 05:18 PM on May 18, 2004
This is pretty amazing stuff, and the first instance I'm aware of where a pro athlete says it healed them. I'm going to follow it, because if Milton-Jones even plays in the Olympics at her normal level, that would be nothing short of a miracle.
posted by wfrazerjr at 06:40 PM on May 18, 2004
If you read the article carefully, near the bottom there's a quote that makes it sound like maybe she doesn't believe it was ever actually torn: "Even after I saw the first MRI, I couldn't believe I had torn my ACL," she said. "It was a feeling from inside, and I told my mom that even though some people would think I was crazy, that there was going to be some sort of a miracle because I just didn't think I had torn it." So I'm not even sure she believes any healing took place.
posted by dusted at 07:22 PM on May 18, 2004
Someone tell DeLisha I can get her an awesome deal on this bridge in Brooklyn if she contacts me ASAP.
posted by molafson at 07:53 PM on May 18, 2004
Actually, after thinking about this, I remember a story from a knee injury bulletin board which is germane. http://www.factotem.org/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl/read/196775 The conventional wisdom is that ACL's do not heal, period. The fluid that baths the knee inhibits any healing but it can happen. I'll be very interested to see how this turns out.
posted by Mike McD at 09:08 PM on May 18, 2004
There's been some interesting work done at the Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Vail, where Dr. Richard Steadman has been rebuilding members of the US Ski Team for years, and coming up with new therapies. Bode Miller blew out his knee at the 2001 Worlds; a year later, he's winning Olympic medals in SLC. What they did with him is, I think, completely different from what DeLisha had done -- it's something called healing response and it is a surgical intervention of sorts, but not conventional stapling.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:16 AM on May 19, 2004
That is weird. I would like to hear a lot more about this.