November 2004

KCUCS World Mission Team goes to Jamaica

For most travelers, Jamaica is a paradise on earth, an ideal vacation spot to get away from work.

For the chiropractors of the KCUCS (Knee Chest Upper Cervical Specific) World Mission team, it was an ideal place to bring their work, and share the benefits of chiropractic with others.

Arriving in Kingston on May 26, the team began its "mission" even before leaving the airport, checking and adjusting the entire staff of Customs agents and Immigration officers.

As the team's members waited outside the airport for their host, Pastor Williamson of The Rock Church in May Pen, Jamaica, they checked and adjusted approximately 200 more people ‑‑ all before the trip had officially begun.

The KCUCS team spent its first night in May Pen in church, where Williamson turned his Wednesday evening service over to them. After team leader Robert Kessinger, DC, explained about chiropractic, the doctors got to work and checked and adjusted the entire congregation.

Once they had more detailed information on chiropractic principles ‑‑ and instructions on how to best hold their adjustments ‑‑ everyone was encouraged to let their friends and neighbors know the American doctors were in town.

During the next two days, the KCUCS team was kept busy checking and adjusting people in the marketplace and on the sidewalks of May Pen, the county seat of Clarendon. To cover more ground, the team split in three groups led by Drs. Kessinger, Michael Anderson and Bruce White.

As with so many other missions like this ‑‑ where every day is filled with successes ‑‑ there was one "miracle" story that stood out among the rest and became the most memorable moment of the trip.

On Friday, May 28, 16‑year‑old Latoya came along to be checked and adjusted, then shyly walked over and asked Kessinger to take a look at her baby.

"The team was all working hard, many people were just coming and coming, we were hot and sweaty and just in the middle of it," Kessinger recalled. Latoya told him about Khalia, her five‑and‑a‑half month old baby who was in the local May Pen hospital with severe asthma, a respiratory infection and fever, gastroenteritis and paralysis in her right arm.

At the hospital, Drs. Anderson and John Sidney Williams were faced with resistance from the staff, but their diplomacy and persistence ‑‑ coupled with the actions of a very determined mother ‑‑ forced the doctor in charge to relent. Latoya signed a form releasing the hospital from any responsibility, and the doctors were permitted to adjust the baby.

As Latoya and several of the medical doctors and nurses looked on, Anderson and Williams carefully checked the child, who was feverish and having trouble breathing. Just as carefully, they adjusted her, then stepped away from the table.

Almost immediately, Khalia began breathing normally and her fever broke. The medical doctors and nurses stood by, stunned by what they saw next: Khalia's right hand (on her "paralyzed" arm) began to move.

The nurses were the first to react, lining up for adjustments.

Since they still weren't permitted to adjust hospital patients, Latoya took the DCs to several reception rooms where people were waiting to be admitted. She explained what the chiropractors were doing and the medical staff didn't stop the team from providing chiropractic care to those who wanted it, since they weren't yet hospital patients. To this day, no one knows how many of those about‑to‑be‑admitted patients were able to walk out without needing hospitalization thanks to their impromptu chiropractic adjustments.

Anderson, Williams and Latoya returned to the church and found Williamson trying to figure out how to raise money to pay for Khalia's prescriptions. When the pastor was told the baby probably wouldn't need drugs, he looked heavenward and said, "Wow, strong is your faith."

"That was a bit of a stretch," admitted Kessinger with a laugh. "Knowing what happens when someone receives an 'Adjustment with the Extra Somethin' as BJ called it, it was evident that baby Khalia would be fine."

The next day, Khalia had recovered completely. Her right arm had full movement. No more paralysis, no more gastroenteritis, no more asthma, no fever, no more respiratory infection.

"The May Pen Hospital's head of the pediatrics ward said they could not release baby Khalia until they understood what happened," Kessinger recounted. "Of course, we knew this could be a while." Through more meetings with the head doctor and other red tape, the KCUCS team was able to get baby Khalia home with mom.

"Much to their credit," noted Kessinger, "through adversity, Anderson and Williams handled themselves with the utmost diplomacy, professionalism and tact, while all the time keeping one thing in mind, helping baby Khalia."

On Sunday morning, the KCUCS team split up into four teams at four separate churches. At each service, a team doctor explained about specific chiropractic and adjusted many of the congregation.

"Following church service, the teams were taken to an infirmary, a place for the outcasts in society or what they called the lock‑ins," Kessinger explained. "It would be hard to witness a more pitiful situation.

"We saw everything ‑‑ mental retardation, dementia, Alzheimer's and others who just couldn't take care of themselves and didn't have others to help. Our team was touched by the compassion of the workers at the facility." The KCUCS team checked and adjusted well over 100 people, almost the entire population of the infirmary.

On Monday, Memorial Day, team members took their work to the Central High School of May Pen, where they checked and adjusted between 600 and 800 students. Afterwards, a few team members continued on to a small orphanage, where they adjusted the 18 children there.

"The trip was exceptional in that many lives were positively touched through specific chiropractic care in Jamaica," Kessinger recalled. "And the doctors' lives were touched as well. Most people in May Pen, Jamaica have never heard of chiropractic, so we were able to carry the chiropractic torch into a new place. The KCUCS team grew in unity with each passing day and formed lifelong friendships."

(For information about KCUCS, contact Dr. Kessinger by phone at 573‑334‑0100; FAX 573‑334‑1465; or e‑mail, kessinger@clas.net.)